
Class 



Book , 



Copyright If. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE CITIZEN'S LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS, 
POLITICS AND SOCIOLOGY— NEW SERIES 

Edited by RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 



THE CITIZEN'S LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS, 
POLITICS AND SOCIOLOGY— NEW SERIES 

Edited by RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



NEW SERIES 

The Progressive Movement. 

By Benjamin P. DeWitt, M.A., LL.B. 

The Social Problem. 

By Charles A. Ellwood, Ph.D. 

The Wealth and Income of the People of the United States 
By Wilford I. King, Ph.D. 

The Foundations of National Prosperity. 

By Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., LL.D.; Ralph H. Hess, Ph.D.; 
Charles K. Leith, Ph.D.; Thomas Nixon Carver, Ph.D., 
LL.D. 

The World War and Leadership in a Democracy. 
By Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Budget Making in a Democracy. 

By Major Edward A. Fitzpatrick. 

The Vision for Which We Fought. 
By A. M. Simons, B.L. 

City Manager in Dayton. 

By Chester E. Rightor, B.A. 

The Marketing of Whole Milk. 
By Harry E. Erdman, Ph.D. 

The Non-Partisan League. 

By Andrew A. Bruce, A.B., LL.B. 

Popular Government. 

By Arnold B. Hall, B.A., J.D. 



NON-PARTISAN 
LEAGUE 



BY 

ANDREW A. BRUCE, A.B., LL.B. 

l\ 

PPOFESSOR OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, 

AND FORMERLY CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME 

COURT OF THE STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA 



jQeto gorb 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1921 

All rights reserved 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



hM 5 7 



Copyright, 1921, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and printed. Published June, 1921. 



Press of 

J. J. Little & Ives Company 

New York, U. S. A. 



JUL 21) |92I 
©CU622098 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF NORTH DAKOTA 
WHO FEARLESSLY AND WITHOUT THOUGHT OF GAIN 
HAVE FOUGHT FOR THE FAITH WHICH ALONE 
HAS MADE AMERICA • 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Non-Partisan League i 

II. North Dakota — Neither Poverty nor Illiteracy the 

Cause of the Revolution 18 

III. The Causes of Unrest — The Foreign Autocracy and 

the Throne Room at St. Paul 23 

IV. The Revolution of 1906 28 

V. The Struggle for Economic Independence .... 34 

VI. The Terminal Elevator and the Legislative Session 

of 1915 54 

VII. The League and Its Socialist Leadership .... 60 

VIII. The Financing of the Non-Partisan League ... 71 

IX. The League's Subversion of the Primary System and 
the Conservative Value of the Initiative and the 

Referendum 75 

X. The League's Legislative and Constitutional Program 88 

XI. The League and Public Education 106 

XII. The Board of Regents' Case and the State University 113 

XIII. The School Funds 117 

XIV. The Seizure of the Coal Mines 130 

XV. The Non-Partisans and the I. W. W 140 

XVI. The Non-Partisan League and the Labor Unions . . 145 

XVII. The League and the World's War . . . . . . 152 

XVIII. Terroristic Policies of the New Autocracy . . . 164 

XIX. The League and the Courts 170 

XX. The Supreme Court and the Scandinavian-American 

Bank Case 185 

XXI. The Youmans Bank Case and the Supreme Test of 

Government 190 

vii , 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

XXII. 



XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 



The Proof of the Pudding and the Revolution within 

the Revolution 199 

The New Revolution and the Primaries of 1920 . . 21a 

The General Elections of November, 1920 . . .216 

An Attempt at a Compromise 225 

The Failure of Further Attempts at a Compromise 

and the Legislative Session of 1921 235 

The Aftermath — The Cooperative Movement . . . 245 

Cooperation and State and National Aid .... 250 

A Thinking Democracy — A Government by Law and 

Not by Temporary Majorities . 266 



NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 



NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

CHAPTER I 

THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

The so-called Non-partisan movement first assumed defi- 
nite form in the state of North Dakota in February 19 15. 
It is now nation-wide in its scope and in its ambition. To 
some casual observers it is merely a more or less interest- 
ing social and economic experiment which they are 
perfectly willing shall be tried at the expense of the people 
of states other than their own. To some it is a harmless 
class obsession — a disease which, like the measles, must 
be allowed to run its course. To others it is an object of 
sympathy because they erroneously look upon it as a 
peasant or tenant farmer uprising. 1 Still others regard 
it as having been from the beginning a popular 
and deliberate attempt to bring about an era of state 
and national socialism. To yet others it is merely a skil- 
fully organized and conducted political movement which 
has capitalized not only the economic and political dis- 
content of the farming and laboring classes, but of the 
discontented generally, and this not that the farmer or 
the laboring man may be benefited, but that a self-chosen 

1 Certainly tenant farming cannot be the cause of the discontent either 
in North Dakota or in Minnesota, for in 1910 only 14.3 per cent of the 
farms in North Dakota were tilled by tenants and in Minnesota only 
21 per cent, while in Iowa where the League has made but little head- 
way the tenant farmers numbered 37.8 per cent. Fifty-two per cent of 
the farmers in Texas were tenants and in Oklahoma the number was 54 
per cent. 



2 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

few may obtain political power. But to the more 
thoughtful and careful observers it is a political move- 
ment which was promoted at first for the gratification of 
personal ambition and the attainment of personal ends, 
but which was soon captured by the American socialist 
hierarchy who are now seeking to make it the entering 
wedge for the attainment of a socialist America. To 
these observers the voice is the voice of A. C. Townley, 
and the hands are the hands of the American 
International. 

The Non-partisan League or movement presents many 
strange contradictions. Its political bedchambers contain 
many strange bedfellows, and in them the lion and the 
lamb may truthfully be said to lie down together. Orig- 
inally it was a movement ostensibly for the betterment 
of the condition of the farming classes. It was a protest 
against unfair grain grading, trading in options, and the 
control of the grain and cattle markets of the Northwest 
by the chambers of commerce and business interests of 
Minneapolis, Chicago and Duluth. Now its program 
and its protest is much more comprehensive, and North 
Dakota has become the home center and the source of 
moneys and supplies if or a nation-wide campaign for the 
creation of a new political party which shall be founded 
upon discontent and whose ultimate object, besides better- 
ing the political and financial fortunes of its leaders, shall 
be the destruction of the middleman, the industrial 
entrepreneur and the so-called capitalistic classes, and 
even the destruction of the private ownership in land 
itself! 

Economically, and thus far developed, the program of 
the League hardly involves state or national socialism. 
Being of farmer origin, it does not as yet include the 
nationalization of land. It is, however, state socialism 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 3 

as far as the farmers' interests dictate, coupled with legis- 
lation for the protection of working-men and the better- 
ment of the working conditions in the factories and in 
the mines, though not upon the farms. With a few 
exceptions it is enthusiastically supported by the socialist 
leaders because they look upon it as an entering wedge 
and believe that the nationalization of land must soon 
follow. 2 It is supported by the laboring-man of the cities 

2 In two letters, the originals of which are on file in the rooms of the 
Minnesota State Historical Society at St. Paul, a member of the League, 
William C. Rempfer of Parkston, South Dakota, says: 

"The League was organized by former members of the socialist 
party, but it is dominated at present by farmers from the rank and file 
of the membership of the League. When you realize that the League 
program is a segment of the pure socialistic doctrine, you will see that it 
is not strange that socialists organized the League, or that it is at present 
dominated by socialists. 

"The League organizers, or at least most of them, are strict Marxians 
and believe in the dictatorship of the proletariat. 

"I do not believe the socialists are sacrificing principle in working 
through the League. They are simply adopting different tactics, al- 
ways keeping in view the socialist aim, namely, the establishment of 
the cooperative commonwealth. 

"It seems to be the socialist attitude toward the land question, the 
world over, that the land must be nationalized in some form or other. 

"The socialists of this country would nationalize the land, allow- 
ing individuals to work it with their own tools, not being allowed to 
use hired labor, however. 

"As far as the sale of the output is concerned, the central govern- 
ment would have to fix the price, because it would be the only pur- 
chaser and distributer of farm produce." 

At the convention of the Committee of Forty-eight, which was held in 
Chicago in July, 1920, for the purpose of organizing a new political 
party, O. M. Thomason, who claimed to represent the Non-partisan 
League of South Dakota and who at one time was a paid organizer in 
the State of North Dakota, stated of this platform, that: 

"We just adopted a little resolution favoring state-owned grain ware- 
houses, and now we have state-owned warehouses, mills, elevators 
and banks — and we weren't socialists like our friends here," point- 
ing at Victor Berger. 

"We didn't make any promises. We just passed laws. We stole 
the Republicans in that and they have been a good party ever since. 
The Republican party in North Dakota is now running true to the form 
of its original days. Nobody can get anywhere in North Dakota if he 
opposes the Non-partisan program. 

"This is the greatest opportunity the American people have ever 
had. 

"The Soviets have set us a good example." 



4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

because he has a city or trade class conscience and cares 
nothing for the farm laborer, and because in his distrust 
of the manufacturer and the middleman, and often in his 
desire for a soviet control of industry, he fails to sense 
the danger of a junkerdom and the fact that $3 a bushel 
wheat must inevitably result in a fifteen cent loaf of 
bread. 

Its socialistic leadership is tolerated and its socialistic 
tendency is overlooked by the naturally conservative and 
(except where his own interests can be subserved) anti- 
socialist farmer, because he thinks that he sees in it the 
means of obtaining his present ends ; and because in the 
past the terms socialist and anarchist have so often been 
misused and the cry of wolf so often raised, that he has 
become suspicious of the conservative critic and has long 
since ceased to be afraid of names. 

As far as North Dakota is concerned, and as thus far 
developed, the program involves state-owned grain 
elevators, warehouses, flour mills, packing houses, cold- 
storage plants, creameries, stockyards, cheese factories, 
a state-owned bank, a large extension of rural credits, a 
home building scheme, state hail and fire insurance, the 
exemption of farm improvements from taxation, em- 
ployers' liability acts, and compulsory state insurance, 
which, however, shall not be applicable to the farms or 
to the railroads; and generally speaking, the destruction 
of the middleman. It is an attempt to gain for the farmer 
the highest possible price for all that he has to sell, and 
the lowest possible price for all that he has to buy, 
together with the lowest possible rate of taxation. In 
order, however, that the movement may become national 
in scope and gain political support in the mining and 
manufacturing states, it contains a promise to do prac- 
tically all that labor demands, with the one exception of 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 5 

standing behind and promoting the movement for the 
eight-hour labor day which the farmer fears may become 
contagious and may later be extended to agricultural 
labor. 

As a political movement it is an attempt to capitalize 
politically the present unrest of the farmer, the present 
unrest of the laboring-man, the present general unrest and 
distrust of government and of those in authority and the 
present general prejudice against organized capital; and, 
by promising relief to all, to organize discontent and to 
make it serve both as a present avenue to political power 
for its leaders and as an entering wedge for a communistic 
America. 

The League was originally a farmers' league. Now, 
however, an attempt is being made to form a national 
organization which shall include all producers, it being 
strictly understood, however, that though for political 
purposes the votes of all are earnestly solicited, the bene- 
fits shall alone belong to those that toil with their hands. 
It is a sort of modern Knights of Labor, organized by 
farmers, allying itself with the laboring-man of the cities 
and the mines, and even with the members of the 
Industrial Workers of the World, and appealing to the 
discontented of all classes for its sustenance and its 
support. 

"Realizing," says a recent circular of the League, "that 
the world as never before, needs united political action 
by the common people, whereby justice may be allotted 
to all; and 

"Realizing that corporate interests are building an 
autocracy, based on the power of wealth, that is dictating 
our laws, and assuming control of our government ; and 

"Realizing that the electoral strength of the nation 
rests in the hands of the common people, and that the 



6 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

safety of our nation and peace, prosperity and happiness, 
lies in their honest and earnest political efforts; and 

''Knowing from experience the impossibility of organiz- 
ing a new party that can be of any force or even promise 
successful results that will relieve the present deplorable 
conditions; 

"Therefore we pledge ourselves to work for and vote 
a program consistent with the needs of the people. 

"Present conditions demand immediate results. A few 
years more and only a bloody revolution will accomplish 
what our ballots can do now. A leader must be chosen 
who will be true to the ideals of democracy. A presiden- 
tial candidate must be chosen who will prove equal to the 
great responsibility. There is a man who has been tested 
and found worthy, who has the respect and confidence of 
all the people, Lynn J. Frazier, Governor of the State of 
North Dakota. 

"Having decided upon the necessity of political action, 
it remains for the people to get club-organization in every 
town, city, village, hamlet, and precinct in the nation. 
Its success means our very existence. Not only must we 
get endorsement, but we must force the adoption of such 
a platform as will be for the best interests of all the 
people. 

"There is but one way to win. We must build our 
clubs so strong that we can control the national conven- 
tion. True this is a great undertaking, but we are a great 
body of common people and can gain all we desire if we 
stick together, realize the fact that the common people 
exceed in voting-strength all the combined forces of the 
opposition, and with us the interest of one is the interest 
of all, and in organization lies our strength." 3 

'Recently it has been claimed that this circular and this nomination 
of Governor Frazier for the presidency were the work of but a small 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 7 

The movement started with an attempt to control the 
price and the marketing of grain. Now it has been turned 
by a socialist leadership into a movement for state social- 
ism in all things except in farm land. It even threatens 
that land by a single tax provision, and if the laboring-man 
and the landless gain control, it is quite clear that an 
attempt will be made to include land also. It is indeed 
a significant fact that in July, 19 18, the County Commis- 
sioners of Bowman County, North Dakota, passed a 
resolution favoring state ownership of land, and that 
not only have the socialists of North Dakota deserted 
their party to such an extent that it no longer has a place 
on the printed ballot, 4 but the legislation of the League 
has been applauded by the leading socialist papers as an 
entering wedge towards their millennium. 5 

body of men and were not indorsed or promoted by the leaders of 
the League. The denial, however, has come so late that we are quite sure 
that both the issuance of the circular and the candidacy were at first 
fully sanctioned and that the repudiation was due to a later belief 
that after all the most important consideration was the continued control 
of the State of North Dakota, and that the popularity of Governor Frazier 
in that state made his candidacy for a third term imperative. 

4 In 1912 the Socialist vote for governor of North Dakota was 6,834, 
in 1914 it was 6,019, in 19 16, and immediately after the organization of 
the League it sank to 2,615. Since that time the party has had no place 
on the printed ballot and no state ticket in the field. Its leaders and 
organizers have deserted it for the new organization. Among those lead- 
ers and organizers are Townley himself and J. Arthur Williams 
who at one time was the assistant editor of the Socialist organ The 
Iconoclast and who was the party's candidate for governor in 1914. 
In 1915 Williams was one of the League's first paid organizers. 

5 The Appeal to Reason, a well-known socialist paper, said: 

"This paper feels particularly gratified and self congratulatory over 
the legislative program announced by the Non-Partisan League repre- 
sentatives who control the state government of North Dakota. This 
radical program includes the very things the Appeal has been fighting 
for; incidentally it was prepared with the advice of an Appeal man, 
Walter Thomas Mills, the well-known socialist lecturer, who conducted 
correspondence courses for the readers of the Appeal and who has for 
years been a contributor to the columns of this paper. 
In September, 1917, the socialist New York Call said: 
"If they are mad, we want to see them bite the agriculturists of all 
other states and infect them, too We do not look upon their efforts as 
a competitor or rival of socialism, but a movement converging on the 



8 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

In the spring of 1920 the Non-partisan League of 
North Dakota had probably some fifty thousand mem- 
bers. The National Non-partisan League into which the 
local organization! has jiow been merged, had probably 
two hundred and thirty thousand members and operated 
in the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 
South Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Nebraska, 
Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, and Oregon. 6 

same road, and with the same object — the abolition of the profiteer. 
They are clear on that point. And while they remain clear on it — 
and the farmer is anything but a fool — we shall indulge in no envious 
feelings if they send a score of their representatives to Congress before 
we do. Nor do we care much about the name. While their main object 
remains the extirpation of the profit system, they are socialists, what- 
ever other name they may call themselves, and are working for the 
realization of socialism. 

"We extend fraternal greetings to the farmers of North Dakota. 
They are, at last, on the right track, and we sincerely hope they will 
show the way to millions of other robbed and exploited tillers of the 
soil." 

6 Colorado 14,666 

Idaho 1 1,549 

Iowa 2,427 

Kansas 5,210 

Minnesota 54,8 1 3 

Montana 22,007 

Nebraska 1 5,482 

North Dakota 50*509 

Oklahoma 2,520 

South Dakota 26,067 

Texas 2,703 

Washington 10,342 

Wisconsin 14,290 

vr 11 232 ' 585 

Miscellaneous 2,074 

234,659 

In studying this table it must be remembered that the League works 
on the theory that once a man is a member he is always a "prospect" 
at least. Nobody is dropped from the books who has once sent in a check 
for membership. He may think he has "quit the League," but he is car- 
ried along as a member, delinquent perhaps, but still a possibility. 

It will also be noted from the foregoing table, that in North Dakota 
the League has 50,509 members. The vote for Governor Frazier at 
the 1920 primary was approximately 55,000. This means that the total 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 9 

It is now seeking to gain a foothold in other states, in 
some as a laboring-man's, and in others as a farmer's 
party. It is especially strong in the states of North 
Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Montana. It would 
perhaps have been equally strong in the State of South 
Dakota if the office-holders and politicians of both the 
Republican and Democratic parties had not in 19 17, and 
in fear of the new party, brought about the adoption of 
constitutional amendments, and, in their platforms at any 
rate, favored the passage of measures which were as 
radical as those originally proposed by the Non-partisans 
themselves. 

It was probably a half-promise to go even further in 
Minnesota that alone secured the election of the regular 
Republican nominees in November, 1920. 7 It would have 
been stronger everywhere if it had not run counter to 
the National Society of Equity, which by cooperative 
effort, has long been attempting to destroy the power of 
the middleman and to control the food and grain markets 
which the League now seeks to control by state socialism 
and by direct legislative action. 8 It would have been 
stronger everywhere if some of the leaders of the 
Socialist Party of America had not sensed a rival in the 
new organization. 9 It would have been stronger every- 

political strength of the League is not 10 per cent greater than its 
membership. 

In Minnesota, the League has virtually 55,000 members, but Dr. 
Shipstead, its nominee for governor, polled 125,000 votes at the 1920 
recent primaries, considerably more than double the total membership of 
the League, while in 1918, its candidate, C. A. Lindbergh, polled more 
than 150,000 votes when the League membership was considerably smaller. 

7 We will discuss this point in Chapter XXVII. 

8 This was especially true in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

9 Some of the socialist leaders have not considered the movement rad- 
ical enough and have bitterly resented the destruction of their own 
party organization and their own loss of power which has been the 
result of their followers voting in the Republican and Democratic pri- 
maries. This jealousy and fear caused the Socialist party of Minnesota 
to put a state ticket in the field in the 1920 fall elections, though there 



io NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

where if the leaders of the League had not thrown 
themselves open to charges of disloyalty during the 
World War, although perhaps the revulsion against mili- 
tarism which has spread through the country, and the 
era of profiteering which has followed that war, may 
now turn even this criticism into a positive political asset. 

Originally the movement was an agrarian, a farmers' 
movement, and though directed and controlled by a 
socialist hierarchy, it is still mainly such in North Dakota, 
which is a purely agricultural state. In Minnesota and 
Illinois, and some other states, it has attempted to unite 
the farmer and the laboring-man, but has especially 
appealed to the latter. It is today politically powerful 
because of the common distrust of the middleman, the 
capitalist and the so-called business interests, and because 
of the general unrest. 

Many of its ideas, like those of the earlier populists, 
will remain in our permanent legislation. The organiza- 
tion, however, must sooner or later fall to pieces, and 
this because there are no points of common interest 
between the farmer and the socialist, and the farmer and 
the laboring-man, save the one attempt to curtail the 
power of the middleman and the excessive power of 
organized capital, which no doubt will be accomplished, 
and which would have been accomplished if the League 
had never existed. This is already evidenced by the fact 
that the Employers' Liability Act of North Dakota was 
especially drawn so as to exempt farm labor though it 

can be no doubt that the rank and file of its members were heartily in 
sympathy with the Non-partisan League and that large numbers voted 
for the Non-partisan candidates in preference to their own. It was 
this jealousy and this fear also which alone prevented the Socialist 
party of North Dakota from fathering and assuming the responsibility 
for the movement from the very beginning, for it is a matter of history 
that before organizing the League Mr. Townley submitted his plans to the 
North Dakota Socialist Central Committee and offered to that committee 
the supervision and control. 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE n 

has been demonstrated that the accidents on the farms 
from dangerous machinery far outnumber those in the 
factories and upon the railroads. It is also evidenced by 
the fact that although on March 28, 1920, simultaneous 
meetings were held in St. Paul of the Farmers' Non- 
partisan League and of a so-called Working-peoples 1 
Non-partisan Political League, and an attempt was made 
by the leaders of both to adopt a common platform and 
as far as possible to endorse common candidates, a total 
disagreement arose over the question of the eight-hour 
labor day which the laboring-man insisted upon and the 
farmers repudiated. 10 It is further evidenced by the total 
failure of the delegates from the Non-partisan League of 
South Dakota to come to any agreement with the radical 
labor leaders at the meeting of the Committee of Forty- 
eight, which was held at Chicago in the month of July, 
1920. 1X 

In America as elsewhere the landed proprietor is the 
natural aristocrat, and the vested interests of the country 
are not in the factories, the stores, or the business houses, 
but on the farms. The struggle in England throughout 
the centuries has been between the land-owning and the 

10 A compromise however, was made in Minnesota in the fall election 
of 1920. The Non-partisan candidate, Henrik Shipstead, was defeated 
by the regular Republican nominee at the June primaries and the only 
course open was to form a coalition with the Working People's Non- 
partisan or Labor party for the November election. The latter party 
was willing to unite forces and to substitute Shipstead for its original 
candidate for governor. It however insisted upon a platform, which 
recognized the right to the eight-hour labor day in the industries though 
not on the farms. 

11 It has since been claimed that these delegates did not represent the 
League as a whole, but merely its South Dakota branch. As in the case 
of the presidential candidacy of Governor Frazier, however, we are 
quite satisfied that the delegates were what may be termed "political 
feelers," and that if, during the meeting of the conference, it had 
transpired that the Non-partisan League could have obtained control and 
the indorsement of its program and of its candidates, the authority of 
the delegates would have been freely recognized. 



12 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

laboring classes. It was the land-owner in Prussia who 
dominated the destinies not only of Germany, but of the 
whole of Europe. Ostensibly we in America know no 
landed aristocracy, but, as a matter of fact, the difference 
is only in names and in our universal suffrage which makes 
the vote of the laboring-man and of the merchant as 
effective as that of the land-owner. What is the British 
country squire but a landed proprietor? We seldom 
realize that in Europe the man who owns six hundred 
acres is looked upon not as a farmer but as an aristocrat. 

The political union between the farmer and the labor- 
ing-man is an impossible union and cannot long continue. 
The Non-partisan party may destroy the middleman. It 
may obtain a monopoly of the food supply of the North- 
west. Every rise in the price of wheat, however, or in 
the price of food, raises the price which the laboring-man 
pays. If the government regulates and reduces the prices 
of farm machinery, and other manufactured articles, it 
to that extent lowers the wages of the laboring-men in 
the cities. Already soap-box orators of the I. W. W.'s 
are haranguing groups of farm laborers, are pointing to 
the fact that the farmers have cattle and broad fields, 
which in Europe would make them princes, and which 
under the socialistic doctrines of the times are the free 
heritage of all. Already they are insisting that since the 
farmers have the natural resources, $10 a day for the 
laboring-man is not a high remuneration, but a poor 
equivalent. Clashes, in short, must come not merely 
between the landed interests and the business interests, 
but between the laboring-man and the farmer himself. 

The farmer indeed should be the most conservative of 
all men, for he owns the land. He now asks that taxes 
may be lifted from all farm improvements, and that farm 
property shall be taxed at a lower rate than the rate on 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 13 

industrial property. A time may come, however, when 
the landless will covet those broad acres and will not be 
content with merely reversing the scale of taxation. State 
ownership of land is the program of his socialist allies, 
and as already stated was even advocated by the County 
Commissioners of Bowman County, North Dakota. 
This has been candidly admitted by many of the League's 
own leaders. 

There is nothing more illogical and absurd than the 
union in the Northwest of the socialist and the farmer 
forces. It is the union of the lion and the lamb. It means 
the absolute assimilation of the latter if only the union 
continues. What is socialism, as defined by Carl Marx, 
by the Bolsheviki, by Wells, by all the socialistic leaders, 
and by all the writers on political economy? It is simply 
the government ownership and control of all of the 
agencies of production; and, according to these writers 
and leaders, and according to the basic facts of nature, 
the principal agency of production is land. We may ven- 
ture the assertion that there is not a real socialist, such 
as Carl Marx and the socialists of Boston and New York 
and Chicago would recognize, among the farmers who 
live west of the Mississippi River, and that if the so-called 
socialist orators told their audiences the real truth and 
defined socialism as it really should be defined, they would 
be accorded but a scant hearing and their followers would 
be few. Who of the farmers of the Northwest would be 
willing to throw their free homesteads, on which they 
have labored and which they now own, into the universal 
jack-pot which socialism demands? 

The reason for the socialist support and applause 
is very evident. Not only does the socialization of one 
industry make it easier afterwards to socialize others, 
but the socialists have always ^desired a stalemate. They 



14 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

have always welcomed the creation even of capitalistic 
monopolies and have always believed that these combina- 
tions but serve to make easier and to point the way to the 
creation of their universal trust. 

Even if the League fails, as never before the farmers 
have been taught how to unite and how to submit to a 
common leadership. They have been taught the value 
of state and national aid in their cooperative enterprises. 
The socialists hope that a situation will arise in America 
similar to that which existed in England at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century and prior to the repeal of the 
corn laws. They believe that such a situation will cause 
a bitter conflict between the laboring-man and the farmer 
and between the landed-proprietor and the landless and 
will result in a nation-wide demand for the nationaliza- 
tion of the land. 

To the rank and file, then, the Non-partisan movement 
is a class obsession. To its active leaders it is an opportu- 
nity for notoriety and for political power. To the large 
landed proprietor it is an opportunity for the cure of 
abuses and possibly for the creation of a farmers' monop- 
oly. To the far-thinking socialist it is an entering way 
for his millennium. It is to be remembered that the 
American socialist has now become an opportunist. He 
no longer insists on the fulfillment of his dreams by one 
sweeping revolution or federal enactment, but, following 
the leadership of the Fabian Society of England, is willing 
to accomplish his ends step by step, and, by socializing 
where the opportunity offers, to make a patch-work which 
may later be transformed into a complete garment. 12 He 

12 In one of the letters to which we have before referred William C. 
Remfer says: 

"The socialists the world ^ver, since the practical experiment in 
Russia, have taken a new tack. They now believe that the chief stress 
should be laid on organization of the workers and the farmers into 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 15 

too welcomes any movement which may lead to a mon- 
opoly whether of steel, or clothing, or of agricultural 

one compact organization and follow up organization with propaganda. 
This is directly opposite of the early theory of education first and 
organization (into the Socialist Party, of course) afterwards. 

In The American Bolshevik which was published in Minneapolis 
under date of February 14, 1919, we find the following: 

"Revolutionary Socialists hold with the founders of scientific So- 
cialism, that there are two dominant classes in society — the bourgeoisie 
and the proletariat, that between these two classes a struggle must go 
on, until the working class, through the seizure of the instruments of 
production and distribution, the abolition of the capitalist state, and the 
establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, creates a Socialist 
order. Revolutionary Socialists do not propose to wait until the vast 
majority of the people vote them into power. 

"In characteristic Utopian fashion the Syndicalists forget that the 
Social Revolution must in part grow 'within the capitalist shell.' 

"They forget that the state, the engine of oppression employed by the 
capitalist class, must be destroyed through capture by the working class. 
We must wrest new concessions from the master-class. What shall be 
our attitude toward the weakening workers? 

"On the basis of the class struggle we shall go among them, impreg- 
nating them with revolutionary Socialism, we shall teach them solidarity, 
we shall teach them class-conscientiousness, we shall teach them the 
hopelessness of social reform, we shall teach them the meaning of 
Revolution. And the industrial unrest, the ferment of discontent, will 
compel them to listen! 

"The class struggle, whether it manifests itself on the industrial field 
or in the direct struggle for government control, is essentially a struggle 
for the capture and destruction of the capitalist political state. This is 
a political act. In this broader view of the term 'political,' Marx 
includes revolutionary industrial action. In other words, the objective 
of Socialist industrial action is also 'political,' in the sense that it 
aims to undermine the state, which 'is nothing less than a machine for 
the oppression of one class fry another and that no less so in a democratic 
republic than under a monarchy. 

"We contend that such political action is a valuable means of propa- 
ganda, and further, that the capture of legislative seats is an effective 
means of capturing the political state, but — and here is the vital point 
for the 'moderate Socialist' goes no further — we hold that this capture 
of the political state is merely for the purpose of destroying it. The 
nature of Socialist parliamentary activity should be purely destructive. 

"Because of its constructive nature, our Economic Arm, unlike our 
Political Arm, may take 'a little at a time.' Our economic movement is 
not unlike a military movement. All means are used to win a war — 
infantry attacks, heavy and light artillery, bombardments, sieges, and 
guerilla fighting. In the industrial struggle the working class em- 
ploys strikes, boycotts and the like. The political movement, however, 
has for its object only the storming of t>e political citadel of capitalist 
tyranny; therefore the Political Arm cannot compromise. Our political 
movement should be the essence and incarnation of our revolutionary 



1 6 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

products, and has always persistently acted on the theory 
that the examples set by these monopolies and the public 

aim. With Liebknecht we say, 'To parliamentarize is to compromise, 
to log-roll, to sell out.' 

The Socialist platform of Minnesota, for the year 1912, declares that 
the political organization and movement of Socialism 'aims to establish 
the collective and public ownership of the means of production, trans- 
portation, and distribution, the democratic operation and management of 
such public enterprises and the remuneration of the workers by the full 
social value of the product of their labor.' The state platform of 1916, 
after setting forth an immediate legislative program, concludes under the 
title, "Ultimate Aim of Socialism." 

"The before mentioned measures are presented by the Socialist Party 
for the immediate relief of the workers but its main efforts are directed 
to the complete overthrow of the present capitalist order and the establish- 
ment of an industrial system based upon the collective ownership and 
democratic management and control of the sources and machinery of 
wealth production." 

The New Times, an official organ of the Northwestern Socialists, under 
date of March 2, 191 8, had the following to say of the Minnesota Socialist 
platform: 

"The Socialist Party of Minnesota in convention assembled pledges its 
fidelity to the principles of International Socialism as contained in the 
National Platform and Constitution of the Socialist Party of the United 
States. It directs its appeal to all members of the working class, whether 
of brain or brawn, and to all who sympathize with its cause. 

SOCIALISM THE ONLY REMEDY 

"While aiming at the overthrow of private ownership in land, mills, 
mines, factories, railroads and industrial processes in general, and the 
establishment of collective or social ownership and democratic manage- 
ment of these things, and recognizing that nothing short of such change 
can be of lasting benefit to the working class, the Socialist Party re- 
affirms its unity with the workers, organized or unorganized, in all 
their efforts to better their conditions. It declares the purpose of the party 
to be to use all political powers that may be entrusted to it, or to relieve, 
so far as possible, the hardships of the workers under existing conditions 
and to assist them in all their conflicts with the powers of privilege. 

"The Socialist Party pledges its undivided support to all legislative 
measures which will benefit the working class, and pledges itself to oppose 
to the limit of its power all measures which make for labor's further 
enslavement and exploitation. 

"Looking to the final abolition of the entire system of private own- 
ership, and for the purpose of strengthening the workers in their present 
struggle with the organized plutocratic powers, we pledge ourselves to the 
following specific measures. 

INDUSTRIAL DEMANDS 

"1 — Continuous shortening of the workday by legal enactment and 
union activity; no standard to be considered final until exploitation of 
labor has been abolished. 



THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 17 

indignation which is occasioned thereby will sooner or 
later lead to his one central government monopoly. 13 



POLITICAL DEMANDS 

"6 — Full suffrage for all adult men and women and the right to vote 
without any restriction, to all aliens of twenty-one years and over who 
have resided in that state one year and declared their intention to become 
citizens of the United States. 

ULTIMATE AIM OF SOCIALISM 

"These measures are presented by the Socialist Party for the immediate 
relief of the workers, but its main efforts are directed toward the complete 
overthrow of the present capitalist order and the establishment of an 
industrial system based upon the cooperative ownership of the resources 
and machinery of wealth production. With the abolition of capitalism, 
the evils which flow from it will necessarily disappear." 

13 Fortunately the recent press reports show that though various farm 
bureaus and other similar organizations are seriously considering such 
action they as yet realize that the public is an important third factor to be 
considered, and as yet appear to be content with insisting upon seats 
on the various boards of trade and chambers of commerce and the forma- 
tion and legalization of great cooperative selling exchanges which shall 
as far as possible help to stabilize the markets, to eliminate the excessive 
profits of the all-too-many middlemen and help to bring about a nearer 
approach between the price that is paid to the producer and that which 
is paid by the ultimate consumer. 



CHAPTER II 

NORTH DAKOTA NEITHER POVERTY NOR ILLITERACY 

THE CAUSE OF THE REVOLUTION 

There is no foundation for the (belief which is so com- 
monly entertained by the eastern conservatives that the 
revolution in North Dakota is due to the illusions of 
illiteracy or that it is the protest of destitution or of want. 
The state has but little poverty and but few extremes of 
wealth. 

In freedom from illiteracy North Dakota stands tenth 
among the states of the American Union, being surpassed 
only by Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho, 
Utah, Washington and Oregon. 1 According to a recent 

1 According to The Encyclopedia Americana the figures for 1910 for 

the United States as a whole, were as follows: 

Per Per 

States cent States cent 

United States 7.7 West North Central 2.9 

New England 5.3 Minnesota 3.0 

Maine 4.1 J™ a \ I<7 

New Hampshire 4.6 Mlss ?™ : 4 * 3 

Vermont 3.7 North Dakota 3.1 

Massachusetts 5.2 £>uth , Dak ° ta 2 ' 9 

Rhode Island 7.7 Nebraska 1.9 

Connecticut 6.0 Kansas 2 ' 2 

Middle Atlantic S-7 South Atlantic 16.0 

New York 5.5 Delaware 8.1 

New Jersey 5.6 Maryland 7.2 

Pennsylvania 5.9 Dist> of Columbia 4-9 

East North Central 3.4 Virginia 15.3 

Ohio 3.2 North Carolina 18.5 

Indiana 3.1 West Virginia 8.3 

Illinois 3.7 South Carolina 25.7 

Michigan 3.3 Georgia 20.7 

Wisconsin 3.2 Florida 13.8 

18 



NORTH DAKOTA 19 

report of the Russell Sage Foundation it occupies the 
fifteenth place in the matter of educational efficiency. In 
per capita wealth it ranks third among the American 
states. 2 Few revolutions indeed which have attained any 
measure of success have been the immediate results of 
either illiteracy or of abject poverty; all have been organ- 
ized and maintained by the relatively intelligent and the 
relatively prosperous, and the revolution in North 

Per Per 

States cent, States cent 

East South Central 17.4 Montana 4.8 

Kentucky 12.1 Idaho 2,2 

Tennessee 13.6 Wyoming 3.3 

Alabama 22.9 Colorado 3.7 

Mississippi 22.4 New Mexico 20.2 



West South Central 13.2 



Arizona 20.9 

Utah 2.5 



Arkansas 12.6 XT „ j* *' " cZ. 

T . . Nevada 6.7 



Louisiana 29.0 



Pacific 3.0 



Oklahoma 5.6 Waahin ^m" " \ .". '.'. '..'. '. '.'.'. '.'.'.'. .J* 



Texas 9.9 



Oregon 1.9 



Mountain 6.9 California 3.7 

2 The following facts were published in 1918 by Mr. Jerry Bacon of 
Grand Forks, North Dakota, himself a successful farmer, in a pamphlet 
entitled: "A. (After) C. (Cash) Townley Smoked Out." 

"The last Government figures, compiled in 1912, showed that North 
Dakota was third in per-capita wealth, Nevada, with its immense mining 
industry and sparse population, leading and Iowa, the greatest agri- 
cultural state, being second. North Dakota's per capita wealth was 
$3,374.00 (total) as against $1,965 for the country at large. For 
comparison, the figures for a few states are given herewith, showing the 
figures for 1904 and 1912, the last two dates when the government 
compiled data, and the per cent of increase: 

1912 

"Nevada $ 5,038 

Iowa 3,539 

NORTH DAKOTA . 3,374 

Massachusetts 1,805 

Rhode Island 1,709 

Connecticut 1,969 

New York 2,626 

New Jersey 2,140 

Pennsylvania i,939 

UNITED STATES.. 1,965 

"To get a definite idea, the value of crops in the state, as estimated by 
the Government experts, is given by years as follows: 



1904 


Increase 


5,214 


—05% 


1,828 


93% 


1,771 


91% 


1,672 


8% 


1,702 


— 


1,453 


36% 


1,868 


44% 


i,547 


28% 


1,707 


14% 


1,318 


49% 



20 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Dakota and in the states of the West furnishes no excep- 
tion to the rule. 

North Dakota has an area of 70,837 square miles, of 
which only 654 is water. It has enormous deposits of 
lignite coal which are found close to the surface through- 
out the whole of its western area so that thousands of its 
farmers have a ready fuel supply at their own doors and 
often on their own lands. Few states in the American 
Union have a larger percentage of soil which is both 
fertile and tillable. Its population in 19 10 was 577,065 
and is now 645,730. Its largest town, Fargo, has only 
21,907 inhabitants. The next largest city, which is Grand 
Forks, has only 14,010. Next to Grand Forks comes 
Minot, with 10,476; Bismarck, with 7,122; Devil's Lake, 
with 5,140. These are the only towns with a population 
which exceeds 5,000. It has in all, twelve cities with a 
population of over 2,500, and 81 cities or villages of a 
lesser number. Of course, it has numerous hamlets. 
Studied in percents, 13.6% of its population live in the 
larger towns and cities, 33% live in places with a popula- 
tion under 2,500, and 53.4% live in the country. 

"1910 $ 61,486,000.00 

1911 138,747,000.00 

1912 166,796,000.00 

1913 113,286,000.00 

1914 155,154,000.00 

191 5 222,924,000.00 

1916 169,660,000.00 

1917 220,290,000.00 

"An average of $155,964,000.00 per annum, or $2,098 for each of the 
74,360 farmers found in the state by the census enumerators. 

"That would indicate a production per farmer of $2998 in 191 5, $2282 
in 1916 and $2,962 in 1917. Where is the state that can equal that 
record ? 

"The census reports indicated that during the census year, the leading 
state in production per farmer was North Dakota, with $2,429 per 
farmer; followed by Nevada with $2,203, California with $1,736 and 
South Dakota with $1,616. Illinois had $1,478; Iowa, $1,450; Wisconsin, 
$838; Oklahoma, $702; Texas $714. The average for the entire coun- 
try was $863." 



NORTH DAKOTA 21 

Though during recent years the tendency throughout 
the nation has been toward the growth of the larger cities 
as compared with the country, in North Dakota there are 
14.6% more people living in the country than the national 
average. 

The state has practically no manufactures, and no 
permanent labor population ; being devoted largely to the 
raising of small grain, even its farm laborers are trans- 
ients. 3 In 1890 it had 27,61 1 farms; in 1900, 45,332 ; in 
1910, 74,360; and in 1915, about 70,355. In 1910 only 
14.3 per cent of these farms were worked by tenants, as 
against 18.2 in Colorado, 10.3 in Idaho, 37.8 in Iowa, 
36.8 in Kansas, 21.0 in Minnesota, 8.9 in Montana, 38.1 
in Nebraska, 54.8 in Oklahoma, 24.8 in South Dakota, 
52.0 in Texas, 13.7 in Washington and 13.9 in Wisconsin. 
In 19 15, it raised 155,845,963 bushels of wheat, for 
which the producers received $135,585,988. It also 
raised large quantities of other small grains, corn and 
hay, for which the producers received the sum of $90,- 
632,065. In 19 14, the estimated value of live stock 
killed for home use was $3,609,956, and of live stock sold 
for market, $9,058,180, and the total deposits of its 
banks amounted to $116,062,027.00. 

According to the report of A. J. Surrat, the field agent 
of the United States Department of Agriculture, the 
value of its agricultural products in 19 17 amounted to 
$271,238,000 and in 1918 to $430,938,000 ; 4 and this 
did not include the value of live stock left on the farms 
which was $156,000,000 in 19 17 and $158,000,000 in 

3 It has perhaps about two thousand coal miners. 

4 It is estimated that in 1918 about two thirds of the valuation of 
approximately $430,000,000 or $288,000,000 represented farm products 
which were actually sold on the market and that the remaining $142,- 
000,000 represented farm products used for seed or consumed on the 
farms. 



22 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

19 1 8, nor the value of straw and of city and village 
garden products. This makes a handsome per capita 
wealth of more than $417.30 for each man, woman 
and child in the state in 19 17 and of more than $643.16 
in 1918. 5 

In 19 19, North Dakota raised and sold at war prices 
53,613,000 bushels of wheat; 3,800,000 bushels of flax; 
14,950,000 bushels of barley; 38,400,000 bushels of oats; 
and 15,560,000 bushels of rye, to say nothing of large 
quantities of corn, clover, potatoes and alfalfa, which she 
either sold on the market or fed to her by no means incon- 
siderable herds of horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. 

Though in 1920 scarcity of labor occasioned a decrease 
in acreage and a somewhat backward season proved injur- 
ious to agriculture, the Government's estimate of the total 
farm value of the field crop was $192,248,000. 

But in spite of its natural wealth, its magnificent pos- 
sibilities, and its sturdy and intelligent people, North 
Dakota is economically speaking but a province and per- 
haps for this reason, the revolution. 

5 The population of North Dakota in 1920 was only 645,730 and in 
the years we have mentioned it must have been less. 



CHAPTER III 

THE CAUSES OF UNREST. THE FOREIGN AUTOCRACY AND 
THE THRONE ROOM AT SAINT PAUL 



From the very beginning not the least of the grievances 
of North Dakota has been that it was governed by an 
autocracy, though few will deny that the Non-partisan 
movement of to-day has built up an autocracy of its own 
which is more autocratic by far than any dictatorship 
which it has sought to supplant. 

The territorial governors and officers of the Dakotas 
were selected in the East. 1 In the first constitutional 
convention of the new State of North Dakota a draft of 
a constitution was presented which was written in the 
East. 2 At all times North Dakota has been economically 
dependent on the East, and for many years its real seat 
of government was at the City of St. Paul in the State 
of Minnesota, rather than at its own capital at Bismarck. 
It is at St. Paul even to-day that the headquarters of the 
Non-partisan League are located, and there its principal 
officers reside. 

North Dakota, in fact, always has been, and perhaps 

x To the North Dakotan all of the territory of the United States 
that lies east of the Red River of the North, is "the East" 

2 At the request of Henry Villard the president of the Northern 
Pacific Railway Company, this constitution was drafted by Professor 
James Thayer of the law department of Harvard University. After 
having been bitterly attacked by M. N. Johnson, who later was elected 
by the North Dakota insurgent Republicans to a seat in the United States 
Senate, it was rejected as "a piece of unwarranted outside intermeddling." 
It was, however, in many respects an admirable document and must have 
served as a guide to many of the members of the convention. 

23 



k. 



24 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

always will be in some particulars a province of St. Paul 
and of Minneapolis, rather than an economically and 
politically independent state. Perhaps it would still be 
little more than a wilderness if it had not been for the 
accumulated wealth of the East, and especially the wealth 
which is controlled by the cities just mentioned, yet it is 
this dependency which has been the occasion of much of 
its discontent. 3 

When the state was settled, industry had long since 
gone out of the home, and farmers were working and 
producing for the market, and not only for their own 
needs or even for local consumption. Often the land 
holdings were very large, and the new settlers were 
landed proprietors and sellers of farm produce rather 
than crofters or cottagers. Their crops had to be sold in 
the East and their supplies of every kind bought in the 
East, and the money which was needed to build their farm 
buildings, to buy their machinery and supplies and to put 
their virgin soil into a state of cultivation had to be 
borrowed in the East or from those who had Eastern 
connections*. They were few in number 4 and had come 
into a new land of Canaan, a land of vast expanse and 
of great natural resources. Millions of dollars were 
necessary for its development and not only had these 
millions to be borrowed that the settlers might acquire 

3 If it had not been for the invention of the twine-binding harvest- 
ing machine, which made it possible for a few men to cut the crops on 
thousands of acres of land, it is very doubtful if the greater part of 
North Dakota would even now be occupied and under cultivation. 

4 In i860, the territory of the Dakotas which included both North 
and South Dakota, only contained 4,837 people. This territory extended 
over 140,000 square miles. In 1870 that part of the territory which is 
is now known as North Dakota had a population of 2,405. By 1880 this 
number had increased to 36,909. In 1890 the federal census enumerated 
a population of 180,719. In 1900 the population was 319,146. By 1910 it 
had increased to 577,056. In 1920 it was 645,730. North Dakota has 
an area of 70,000 square miles. 



THE CAUSES OF UNREST 25 

and produce, but outsiders must themselves own and con- 
struct the main arteries of trade and of commerce. Small 
grains in the eastern part of the state and cattle in the 
western were the North Dakotans' only stock in trade, 
and this grain and these cattle had necessarily to be sold 
at the railroad centers, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth. 

On account of the shortness of the seasons, and the 
lack of farm help and of storage facilities, the crops had 
to be threshed from the shocks in the open fields, and 
immediately sent to the Eastern markets, and the money 
to move these crops had to be furnished by the East, and 
again largely by St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was in 
St. Paul and Minneapolis also that the central offices of 
the railroad lines and of the lumber and elevator com- 
panies were located. 

It was but natural that the capitalists of these cities 
should sooner or later seek to attain a share in the gov- 
ernment of a state in which they had so heavily invested, 
and to assume some measure of control over its economic 
policies. 

Rightly or wrongly, therefore, and often wrongly, the 
railroads and the financial interests of St. Paul and 
Minneapolis soon began to interfere in the politics of 
North Dakota, and soon the Merchants Hotel at St. Paul \/ 
became the throne-room of its political bosses. Though 
it must be admitted that as a rule these bosses governed 
fairly and well, but little public money was squandered 
or stolen and the antirailroad and corporation measures 
which were killed in the legislature should perhaps in 
almost every case have been defeated on their merits, it 
is nevertheless true that an autocratic government soon 
came to prevail, so that it was often and truthfully said 
that if one desired to run for the office of poundmaster 



26 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

it was first necessary for him to go to the throne-room 
and to obtain permission. 

Winston Churchill's story of Conniston, indeed, might 
just as well have been written of North Dakota, and 
North Dakota certainly has had its Jethro Bass, in fact 
two of them. One of these Jethros was a Scotchman, 
Alexander McKenzie. The other was a French Canadian, 
Judson LaMoure. 5 Both were remarkably able men, 
though both were comparatively uneducated. Both had 
had a rigid training in the methods and the politics of 
the West. 6 Both, if not directly, were certainly indirectly 
in the employment of the railroads, and, by means of the 
free passes which they were able to give and the many 
other favors which they bestowed, were able not merely 
to prevent much legislation which was hostile to 
their employers but generally to control the politics of 
the new state. Soon too they came to have other clients, 
and as their clients increased their power increased also. 
These new clients were the banks, the insurance compa- 
nies and the owners of the lines of grain elevators and 
lumber-yards, all of which had their headquarters in the 
eastern cities, and all of which seemed to deem it neces- 

6 Judson LaMoure read the book referred to with great interest. 
He saw the parallel and appeared to be pleased when his friends 
called his attention to it. He resembled the character both in his good 
qualities and in his bad, and, as is the case with most political bosses, 
owed to these good qualities much of his political power. For many 
years he retained a seat in the Senate as a representative from Pem- 
bina County and at all times enjoyed the genuine affection of his 
constituents. He zealously watched over the interests of his corporate 
clients and protected them from hostile legislation. But as a member 
of the upper house and as chairman of its finance committee, he was in 
all other respects an efficient and a really valuable member. 

8 That of Judson LaMoure had been obtained as an Indian agent 
in the Pike's Peak mining boom and on the frontiers of Iowa and 
South Dakota. That of Alexander McKenzie, as a United States army 
scout at the time of the Custer massacre, as sheriff of Burleigh County, 
North Dakota, in the early days when the cattle rustler and the hostile 
Indian were abroad, and later in the mining centers of Alaska, 



THE CAUSES OF UNREST 27 

sary to maintain lobbies at the North Dakota capital to 
protect their interests, and who therefore, even if they did 
not directly employ, had at any rate to make peace with 
the ruling political magnates, and to agree to any pro- 
gram which they advocated. 



a 



CHAPTER IV 

THE REVOLUTION OF I906 

Sooner or later it was inevitable that there should be a 
rebellion, and that there should be an attack on corporate 
control and a demand for home rule. It was also not to 
be expected that this rebellion should always be altruistic 
and always be wisely led, but that in it, as in all other 
revolutions, the demagogue and the political profiteer 
would see his opportunity and would play his part. 

The first uprising was in 1892. Its immediate cause 
was the veto by Governor Andrew H. Burke of a bill 
which was favored by the Farmers' Alliance and which 
sought to compel the railroads to lease sites on their 
rights of way for grain elevators and warehouses. The 
result was a fusion of the Farmers' Alliance, the Populists 
and the Democrats and the election of Eli C. B. Short- 
ridge as governor. During this administration a small 
appropriation was made for the construction of a ter- 
minal elevator at Duluth. Perhaps on account of the 
panic of 1893 and perhaps for other reasons nothing 
further was done to promote the venture and the rebellion 
itself was terminated in 1894 by the election of the reg- 
ular Republican candidate, Roger Allin. 

The real revolution came in 1906. Its success was 

largely due to the activities of three men, George Win- 

Jship who was the editor and owner of the Grand Forks 

I Herald, which was by far the most influential paper in 

the state; Burleigh F. Spalding, who was a trained and 

28 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1906 29 

effective politician, and who acted as organizer and field 
manager; and John Sorley, who, by the creation of a 
Scandinavian League did much towards organizing his 
countrymen and formulating their protest against the 
dominant Scotch McKenzie-McCumber-Hansborough 
autocracy. 

Winship had for many years worked with the so-called 
old gang or machine, and had held many more or less 
lucrative offices as a result of his association. He, how- 
ever, was a man of independent thought and always seems 
to have chafed at restraint. He early sensed the popular 
discontent. He had watched the La Follette insurrection 
in Wisconsin from the beginning and it was not long 
before he became convinced of the political potency of 
the La Follette appeal. Like La Follette, and for much 
the same reasons, he had become dissatisfied with the 
caucus and convention system. 

Spalding, also, had formerly associated with the old 
machine. Curiously, yet not curiously after all, for there 
is nothing that is curious or unusual in politics, he was a 
conservative of the conservatives and was constitutionally 
opposed to practically all of the so-called reform measures 
and isms that the rank and file of the insurgents, or, as 
they chose to term themselves, Progressive Republicans, 
so vigorously advocated and insisted upon placing in their 
platforms. 

But he was a well trained and shrewd politician and 
had the advantage of being a man of high character and 
attainment. Above all he had a real grievance. Though 
he had associated with the dominant political faction he 
had always resented dictation and there can be no sugges- 
tion that he at any time connived at any dishonorable 
practices. In fact in the past he had been tolerated by 



30 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

the politicians and allowed to hold his seat in Congress 
merely on account of the fact that he was naturally and 
constitutionally a conservative and what might be termed 
"a safe and sane man." 

He had resented an attempt to control his patronage 
and to interfere in other ways with the freedom of his 
personal judgment, consequently at the Republican Con- 
vention of 1903 the political managers saw fit to refuse 
him their reindorsement as congressman and nominated 
Ansel Gronna in his place. 

Gronna at that time was also a strong conservative, 
though later, when a member of the United State Senate, 
he became one of the strongest supporters of Senator 
Robert M. LaFollette and of the Non-partisan League. 1 
He was a Scandinavian by birth and was especially strong 
with the Norwegian settlers of the state who at that time 
perhaps constituted forty per cent of the voters. It was 
this latter fact which probably led to his selection though 
there can be no doubt that the rejection of Spalding in 
any event had been determined upon. 

But Spalding was not of the kind that brooks rejection. 
Nor was it necessary that he should do so. Revolution 
was in the air and all that was needed was an organizer 
and a leader. Already the fame of LaFollette had spread 
to North Dakota. The so-called LaFollette reforms 
were being everywhere discussed. Many of the settlers of 
North Dakota had themselves come from Wisconsin. All 
that was necessary was to make of the name McKenzie 
an anathema, and a little muckraking in the congressional 
records made this a very easy task. 

Senator Hansborough, in the United States Senate, 
and Alexander McKenzie, as the United States marshal, 

x He was later repudiated by the League and was defeated by their 
candidate E. F. Ladd at the 1920 elections. 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1906 31 

either rightly or wrongly, and it made no difference 
which, had been popularly associated with the so-called 
"Looting of Alaska" which has since been put in story 
form in Rex Beach's novel, The Spoilers. These men 
both belonged to the so-called old gang. McKenzie was 
especially vulnerable because he had been made the scape- 
goat of the whole affair. Above all, the defrauded 
miners were or were supposed to have been Scandina- 
vians, and forty per cent of the voters of North Dakota 
belonged to that race. All therefore that was necessary 
was to spread abroad the story of the "Looting of 
Alaska," to denounce McKenzie and all of his works, 
and to raise the standard of revolt. A coalition was 
made with the Democrats, and John Burke was elected 
Governor. The insurgents obtained control of both 
houses of the legislature. Above all, the system of 
primary elections was adopted. 

It was this revolution which laid the foundations for 
the present Non-partisan League, for in it the farmers of 
North Dakota found a new war cry and new objects of 
anathema. That war cry was "North Dakota for North 
Dakotans" and the objects of their anathema were Big 
Business, McKenzie and McKenzieism. 

Formerly the Scandinavian voters of the state had 
been loyal Republicans and had implicitly followed and 
obeyed the old party leaders. Many of them had come 
to the United States during the Civil War or immediately 
thereafter; for years the spirit of revolt against the 
Swedish aristocracy had been brewing in Norway; to 
them the name Republican had something in it that was 
fascinating and in their minds the Democratic party had 
been associated with the maintenance of slavery. It was 
a Republican North which had opened up the free lands 



32 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

of the West for settlement and it was to that party that 
they owed their homestead rights. The early Scandi- 
navian settlers in America had fought in the armies of 
the North ; Minnesota, which had sent the first regiment 
of volunteers to the front, was a Scandinavian state; the 
Thirteenth Wisconsin Regiment which had rendered so 
good an account of itself at Chattanooga was a Scandi- 
navian regiment. Historically the Norseman was closely 
identified with the Republican party. 

Now, however, he was told that the independence 
which he had fought for in Norway, was being denied 
to him in North Dakota. He was told that in the place 
of the hated aristocracy of blood and of the old world 
there was a new aristocracy of money and corporate 
power. A Scandinavian Voters' League was organized. 
The gods of the past were dethroned. Law abiding 
though he was, the Norseman had cut away from the 
land of his fathers and the traditions of the old world. 
He knew nothing of the traditions of the new. The 
Pilgrim Fathers were not his fathers; of the history of 
our constitution and of the growth of our American 
system under the law he was entirely ignorant. All he 
knew was that Big Business had charged three per cent a 
month interest, Big Business had manipulated the price of 
wheat, Big Business had controlled his vote. He had lost 
his moorings and his faith, he was ready for anything 
new. 

Everything that was new, or that was supposed to be 
new was promised to him. Under the new primary sys- 
tem each candidate had to formulate his own platform 
and to work out his own salvation. The vague and 
tweedledum and tweedledee arguments on the tariff gave 
place to definite economic propositions. Politicians of 
all ranks and grades ransacked the legislative records of 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1906 33 

the world and especially those of Australia, New 
Zealand, Switzerland and Denmark for suggestions and 
for analogies. Men and women everywhere were begin- 
ning to question the very foundations of government. 



CHAPTER V 

THE STRUGGLE FOR ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 

Economic grievances usually lie behind political revolu- 
tions, and when once political freedom has ibeen obtained, 
the next goal is usually industrial. 

The principal grievances in North Dakota were the 
exactions of the middlemen and the control of the grain 
and stock market by the boards of trade and the chambers 
of commerce of the cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis and 
Duluth. That in the past the middlemen should have been 
in a position to profit at the expense of North Dakota was 
unavoidable. In order that the grain might be marketed, 
North Dakota had of necessity to sell its products to 
Eastern consumers and in the centers where the Eastern 
consumers purchased their goods. The local buyer with 
eastern connections was absolutely necessary; above all, 
the local warehouse and the local grain elevator were 
necessary. These elevators and warehouses the farmers 
themselves could not build in the early days because they 
lacked the ready cash; and, of course, they could not sell 
to themselves. Even after they had begun to build their 
so-called Farmers' Cooperative Elevators, 1 poor crops 

*ln 1915 there were probably eight hundred so-called farmers' eleva- 
tors in the state as opposed to about fourteen hundred belonging to the 
so-called old line companies. The really private nature of these farmers' 
elevators however, was completely demonstrated during the World's War, 
when their owners and stockholders, at a meeting which was held at 
Bismarck, made a bitter complaint against a number of the local 
mills because they paid such high prices for wheat that the farmers' 
cooperative elevators could not make any profit. 

34 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 35 

and present needs rapidly occasioned the majority of the 
stockholders to sell their interests, and caused these 
elevators to become practically one-man and privately 
owned. Even these elevators were compelled to ship to the 
city markets and to employ city commission men or agents. 
Often in order to obtain the money with which to buy 
from the farmers they were compelled to borrow from 
the commission houses. If, therefore, North Dakota 
was to be developed, the capitalists of the East and 
especially of St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth had them- 
selves to spend millions of dollars and to build large lines 
of elevators. It was only natural that these elevators 
and systems should center in Minneapolis and St. Paul, 
where the Falls of St. Anthony early made a milling 
center possible, and in Duluth, which was at the head of 
the transportation of the Great Lakes. The railroads 
from the East converge at these points, and it was to 
these cities that the Eastern buyers would come to buy. 
These eastern buyers could, of course, buy small quan- 
tities of grain elsewhere. They could, of course, contract 
with the North Dakota farmers to ship to them directly; 
but as a rule, the North Dakota farmer desired to sell 
his grain by the wagon-load rather than in carload lots, 
and in fact needed the immediate cash which the local 
elevators would pay rather than the promises to pay 
when the carloads reached their destinations, which 
might not be for many weeks. The eastern buyer also 
usually desired to buy in large quantities and to be sure 
of getting the grade and the quality which he had con- 
tracted for, and this could be accomplished only by buying 
in the central markets. 

All this necessitated boards of trade or chambers of 
commerce. The nature of the business made it necessary 



II 



36 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

to establish certain grades so that the grain could be sold 
by sample and contracts for future delivery be made and 
filled. It necessitated commission men and commissions. 
It necessitated inspection to determine the grade of each 
carload received. It also necessitated a difference of price 
between each grade and the selling on the open market 
and to the highest bidder that which the boards or 
inspectors considered did not conform to any of the 
established grades. The practice in short was as fol- 
lows : 

When a farmer in North Dakota had a load of grain 
to sell he would drive it to his local elevator. There the 
local buyer would examine it, grade it and pay him there- 
for on the basis of the price for the same grade at 
Minneapolis less freight, a dockage or reduction for foul 
seeds, dirt, and foreign grain, and a profit. Even if he 
were not buying as the agent of a mill or for his own 
consumption the buyer could do this with comparatively 
little risk as he could estimate the number of bushels he 
was going to buy in any one day and by telegraph sell 
the same for future delivery on the Minneapolis market. 
The grade being established, he could fill the order or sale 
by delivering the same wheat or wheat of a similar 
grade. 

If, however, the farmer himself desired to sell on the 
Minneapolis market and was not satisfied with the grade 
or the prices of the local buyer, he, himself, could ship 
his grain in carload lots to Minneapolis and sell it 
through a commission man, but of course, he would have 
to accept the Minneapolis grades and pay the Minneapolis 
commission. 

The farmers complained, and often with much justifi- 
cation, that the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce was 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 37 

a close corporation; that only its members could trade 
upon its floors and that as a rule they were the owners 
of or were connected with the great milling or elevator 
interests. 2 

He complained that the grain inspector was to all in- 
tents and purposes an appointee of the chamber and that 
the farmer was entirely at the mercy of the board. He 
complained of unfairness in computing the amount of 
dockage for dirt, foul seeds and inferior and spoiled 



3 According to a statement made by Charles Edward Russell in 
his The Story of the N on-Partisan League, the membership in the 
Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce was as follows: 

Line elevators 135 

Terminal elevators 39 

Commission houses 200 

Feed houses 5 

Shippers 34 

Hay dealers 7 

Linseed-oil concerns 13 

Millers 50 

Maltsters 8 

Bankers 8 

Capitalists 6 

Manufacturers 7 

Lawyers 2 

Railroad representatives 2 

Farmers 2 

Insurance agency 1 

Total 318" 

According to the same author "each membership in the chamber car- 
ried a vote and each firm or corporation could own as many member- 
ships as it pleased" and the corporations represented were as follows: 

"Van Dusen-Harrington Company (grain handlers) 21 

Washburn-Crosby Company (millers, grain handlers) 24 

Big Diamond Mills 10 

Pillsbury Flour Mills Company 9 

E. S. Woodworth Company (grain) 9 

T. M. McCord Company (grain) 9 

The F. H. Peavey Company (grain) 8 

McCaul-Dinsmore Company (grain) 7 

E. L. Welch Company (grain) 7 

The Minneapolis Banks 8" 



38 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

foreign grain and that a charge was made for switching 
whether the switching of the car was necessary or not. 
Above all he complained that though there was a marked 
difference in the prices which were allowed for the dif- 
ferent grades of wheat there in fact was no difference in 
their milling quality and that all grades made equally 
good flour. 3 He therefore insisted that this milling 
quality and not a fanciful grade should determine the 
price. He also insisted that he should be allowed for 
the value of the dockage which often contained good 
grain and seed. He called attention to the fact that by 
cleaning and scrubbing and other processes and by skill- 
fully mixing lower with higher grades the grain dealers 
were able to create a grade which would meet the 
requirements of the eastern markets. He insisted that 
more wheat of the higher grades was shipped out of 
Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth than was credited to 

3 This claim was made by Prof. E. F. Ladd of the North Dakota 
Agricultural College. It was based on experiments on a small scale which 
were made in the laboratory, and as yet its truth can hardly be said to 
be established. The statement, however, has been much advertised. 
Perhaps the truth of the case is that the lower grades of wheat may 
make flour of as high a nutritive value as that which is milled from 
the higher grades, but that they do not make a flour which can be 
sold on the market at the same price. The market value of the flour 
of course must ultimately determine the price which is to be paid to 
the farmer for his wheat and nutritive values and market values are 
entirely different things. The higher grades of wheat make a whiter 
flour and the same quantity makes a larger loaf. These large white 
loaves have won a place for themselves in the hearts of the house- 
keepers of both America and Europe, and it is because the Minneapolis 
mills first learned how to make this white and expansive flour that they 
outdistanced their competitors, captured both the American and the 
European markets and made Minneapolis the greatest milling center 
in the world. It is because of this fact and because of the knowledge 
and the skill that is possessed by the Minneapolis millers that they have 
been able to give to the hard wheat of the North its particular value, 
and it is because of their large purchases that the prices of wheat at 
Minneapolis so often exceed those which prevail in Chicago and in 
the other markets of the country. 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 39 

the farmer. 4 He claimed that all these profits should 
be his. He insisted on a market of his own and on the 
right to fix his own prices. He wanted terminal elevators 
at Minneapolis, St. Paul and the other centers, which 

*In 1906 a committee of the North Dakota Bankers' Association made 
the following report on a Duluth elevator: 

Bushels Bushels 

Grade of Wheat Received Shipped 

No. 1 Northern 99,711.40 196,288.30 

No. 2 141,455.10 467,764.00 

No. 3 272,047.20 213,549.30 

No. 4 201,267.20 None 

No Grade 116,021.10 None 

Rejected 59,742.30 None 

Total 890,245.10 877,512.00 

On hand, estimated 12,733.10 

890,245.10 
Another elevator's records: 

Grade of Wheat Bu. Received Bu. Shipped 

No. 1 Hard 599,6o2 648.607 

No. 1 Northern 15,187.012 19,886.137 

No - 2 19,693,454 15,178,999 

iJ°; 3 • • 7,035,133 i,97i,355 

Rejected 892,241 94,626 

No Grade 2,561,505 468,922 

And still another: 

No. i Hard 90,543 199,528 

No. 1 Northern 12,401,897 18,217,789 

N _°- 2 10,295,172 6,723,732 

No « 3 2,616,065 283,299 

Rejected 2,350,302 3H,i39 

No Grade 2,586,843 256,943 

Bulletin No. 114 of the North Dakota Agricultural Station prints 
the following report of the Chief Inspector of Grain of the State of 
Minnesota. 

Grade Bu. Received Bu. Shipped 

N °- * S ar< J 586,600 276,484 

2°- x I J I orth 1 f rn 15,571,575 19,978,777 

No. 2 Northern 20,413,584 22,242,410 

No. 3 Northern 9,77o,o 3 i 7,664,232 

No. 4 Northern 2,812,653 624,433 

l eje « ed A M75,5i3 621,77 

No T S5 de 4 ' 695 ' 562 Wili 

10tal .55,025,521 52,409,054 



40 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

should be large enough to make it possible for him to 
offer his grain in sufficient quantities so that the eastern 
buyer could purchase from him directly. He insisted on 
the right of his selling agency, the Equity Exchange, to a 
seat on and a right to sell on the floors of the Minneapolis 
Chamber of Commerce, which had heretofore been un- 
wisely denied it. He claimed that the price of a loaf of 
bread and of a barrel of flour was grossly excessive as 
compared with the price that he was paid for his wheat. 
He wished to do his own manufacturing in North Dakota, 
to keep the by-products himself, and to be a seller of flour 
as well as a raiser of wheat. 

In speaking of these demands United States District 
Judge Charles F. Amidon, who has always been a friend 
of the League, in an opinion said: 

"The people of North Dakota are farmers, many of 
them pioneers. Their life has been intensely individual. 
They have never been combined in incorporated or other 
business organizations, to train them in their common 
interest, or promote their general welfare. In the main 
they have made their purchases and sold their products 
as individuals. Nearly all their live stock and grain are 
shipped to terminal markets at St. Paul, Minneapolis 
and Duluth. There these products pass into hands of 
large commission houses, elevators, and milling companies 
and live stock concerns. These interests are combined, 
not only in corporations, chambers of commerce, boards 
of trade, and interlocking directorates, but in the millions 
of understandings which arise among men having common 
interests and living through long terms of years in the 
daily intercourse of great cities. These common under- 
standings need not be embodied in articles of incorpora- 
tion or trust agreements. They may be as intangible as 
the ancient 'powers of the air.' But they are as potent 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 41 

in the economic world as those ancient powers were 
thought to be in the affairs of men. It is the potency of 
this unity of life of men dwelling together in daily inter- 
course that has caused all nations thus far to be governed 
by cities. 

"As North Dakota has become more thickly settled 
and the means of intercourse have increased, the evils 
of the existing marketing system have been better under- 
stood. No single factor has contributed as much to that 
result as the scientific investigation of the state's agricul- 
tural college and the federal experts connected with that 
institution. That work has been going on for a genera- 
tion, and has been carried to the homes of the state by 
extension workers, the press, and the political discussion 
of repeated political campaigns. 

"The people have thus come to believe that the evil 
of the existing system consists not merely in the grading 
of grain, its weighing, its dockage, the price paid and the 
disparity between the price of different grades, and the 
flour-producing capacity of the grain. They believe that 
the evil goes deeper; that the whole system of shipping 
the raw materials of North Dakota to these foreign ter- 
minals is wasteful and hostile to the best interests of the 
state. They say in substance : 

"(1) The raw materials of the state ought to be 
manufactured into commercial products within the state. 
In no other way can its industrial life be sufficiently diver- 
sified to attain a healthy economic development. 

"(2) The present system prevents diversified farming. 
The only way that can be built up is to grind the grain in 
the state which the state produces — keep the by-products 
of bran and shorts here, and feed them to live stock upon 
the farms of the state. In no other way can a prosperous 
live stock, dairy, and poultry industry be built up. 



42 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

"(3) The existing marketing system tends directly to 
the exhaustion of soil fertility. In no other way can 
soil depletion be prevented, except to feed out to live 
stock at least as much of the by-products of grain raised 
upon the state's farms as that grain produces when 
ground, and thus put back into the soil, in the form of 
enriched manures, the elements which the raising of small 
grain takes from it." 

On the same subject and in another judicial opinion 
Mr. Justice Richard Grace, who was elected by the 
League to a seat on the Supreme Court of the State of 
North Dakota, said: 

"The principal source of the production of wealth of 
North Dakota is agriculture. It is a conservative esti- 
mate that 90 per cent of the wealth produced by the 
state is from agriculture. It is the foundation of the 
state's prosperity and welfare, and upon it, as such, 
rests all other business of the state. The mercantile 
pursuits, the banking interests, and every business pursuit 
within the state depends directly for its success upon the 
wealth produced by the farmers of this state. The 
wealth produced by the farmers of this state is the life- 
blood of the business interests of the state; hence the 
conservation and securing of the wealth produced by the 
farmers to them is of vital interest not only to the 
farmers, but to every one who is engaged in the carrying 
on of business within the state. 

"Under the conditions which have heretofore existed 
for the purpose of marketing, wheat has been graded. 
The grades are No. 1 hard, No. 1 northern, No. 2, 3, 4, 
and no grade. Under this system of wheat grading the 
agriculturists of this state have in the last quarter of a 
century unquestionably lost hundreds of millions of dol- 
lars. There has been what may be termed a 'spread' 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 43 

between the No. i hard and the lowest grade above 
named of perhaps 20 cents per bushel, and sometimes 
more. This difference is made to exist on many pretexts; 
for instance, though one grade of wheat — say, for in- 
stance, No. 3 — may contain wheat of just as good milling 
quality as that made from No. 1 hard wheat, there is, 
nevertheless, perhaps a 'spread' of 10 cents per bushel be- 
tween the two grades of wheat, based perhaps upon the 
fact that the lower grade of wheat may be somewhat 
bleached by having stood out in the weather in the shocks 
and have been subjected to inclement weather, while 
wheat near the same field may have been threshed and 
secured without having been subject to adverse weather 
conditions. 

"The only difference between the two grades of wheat 
in this instance is practically one of color. The wheat 
which has been subject to more or less inclement weather, 
being what is termed bleached, of course, readily affords 
an excuse for the difference in grade and price. Again, 
one grade of wheat — for illustration, take the same 
grades; the lower grade may weigh 45 pounds to the 
bushel, and the higher 60 pounds to the bushel. While 
there may be a great difference in their weights, according 
to eminent authority, there is not, as a general rule, much 
difference in their milling qualities and values. 

"It must be remembered that wheat is not sold by the 
measured bushel. While a bushel, struck measure, of 
light wheat might not weigh over 45 pounds, it must be 
remembered that 45 pounds do not make a bushel, and 
that 60 pounds do. A bushel, 60 pounds, of the light 
No. 3 wheat, being of just as good milling quality as the 
No. 1 hard wheat, will substantially make just as much 
flour, of just as good quality, but under the system of 
grading, by reason of the lightness of the poorer grade, 



44 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

there is perhaps a 'spread' of all the way from 10 to 20 
cents per bushel of 60 pounds. 

"Prof. Ladd, president of the North Dakota Agri- 
cultural College, and one of the most eminent chemists 
and scientists of the United States, and well known and 
his ability recognized in foreign nations, has demonstrated 
scientifically that the poorer grades of wheat, such as 
above referred to, are substantially of just as good milling 
value and produce flour equally of as high a grade as 
that of the highest grade of wheat, and he concludes, 
and we agree with this conclusion, that the fair and equit- 
able method of marketing wheat is to base the price 
thereof on the milling value thereof. 

"It has been estimated that the loss to the farmers of 
this state by loss in grades and the values fixed thereby, 
instead of by the milling value, coupled with the loss by 
dockage and the failure to pay for the dockage, together 
with many other elements of loss in the marketing of 
wheat outside of the state, including the loss of the 
fertility to the soil by the failure to feed any of the by- 
products thereof to stock within the state, thereby 
enriching and revitalizing it, represents an annual loss of 
perhaps $5 5,000,000 s to the wheat raisers of this state. 
"There is also indisputably considerable loss in the 
marketing of other grains, all of which, taken together, 

6 The absurdity of this statement is self-evident. It is based on a 
supposed estimate which was attributed by John Worst, the former 
president of the North Dakota Agricultural College, to Professor E. 
F. Ladd who at that time was the state's pure food inspector, though 
its making has since been denied by its alleged author. According to 
Judge Grace's opinion the spread between number one wheat and 
no grade wheat is twenty cents a bushel. The total wheat crop of 
North Dakota has rarely exceeded 50,000,000 bushels. Twenty cents 
a bushel would make ten million and not fifty million dollars. Even 
this estimate would be absurdly high as it presupposes an absolute 
refusal to recognize any of the higher grades. The statement how- 
ever was widely circulated and contributed largely to the success 
of the Non-partisan movement. 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 45 

aggregate a vast sum. This vast loss is not only a loss 
to farmers of the state, but it must be as well a loss to 
the business for it must be done on the profits above 
production. These vast losses sustained by the farmer 
are reaped as rewards by the great elevators and milling 
interests, commission firms, chambers of commerce, lo- 
cated in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, or other cities 
outside the state. Into their hands they have passed as 
profits, never to return to the farmers or business interests 
of the State of North Dakota. To prevent these losses, 
to retain in the State of North Dakota in the future these 
lost profits, to pay the farmer the full value of the 
product of the soil produced by him, and thus by so doing 
to secure the prosperity of every business and of every 
inhabitant of the state, and thus promote the general and 
common welfare of every inhabitant of the state, the 
Constitution has been amended, laws enacted, and bonds 
by the Legislature authorized and issued for the purpose 
of affording the producers of grain within this state a 
market where they will receive the full value of their 
products." 

And the radicals were not the only protestants. On 
August 4, 19 1 6, in a speech in the United States Senate, 
Senator Porter J. McCumber said : 

"So far the Congress has been deaf to their cries for 
assistance, until the farmers themselves in my state and 
in other states have been forced to take drastic measures. 
They asked for Federal supervision of the grain trade. 
The Congress of the United States denied it. They 
asked for Federal standardization. The Congress denied 
it. They asked for Federal inspection. The Congress 
denied it. They presented to the Congress of the United 
States the fact that they, being compelled to sell their 
product in another state, had no control, by legislation 



46 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

or otherwise, of the rules which govern the selling of 
that product. Still the ears of Congress were deaf to 
that cry. So in my own state, exasperated beyond endur- 
ance, they asked for an amendment to the constitution of 
the State of North Dakota which would allow the state 
to purchase or erect an elevator at the great terminals 
and to be able to handle their own grain, and escape, if 
possible, some of the injustices they suffered at the hands 
of this great grain system. 

"The state having failed to pass the necessary legisla- 
tion, there followed a great farm organization in the 
State of North Dakota. That organization nominated 
its own men in the great political parties, and with an 
overwhelming majority it succeeded in electing at the 
primaries those men whom it had chosen to carry out its 
views. It may be that some may regard their purposes 
as radical, but here are some of the things that they are 
demanding, and they are things that they will carry out 
before they get through : 

"The first is a terminal elevator or elevators in which 
they will handle their own grain by their own state in a 
foreign state. 

"Secondly, they are determined now to provide for 
state packing plants. 

"Third, they are determined to have state insurance. 

"Fourth, they are determined to have a system of rural 
credits. 

"That element, which was initiated in the state of 
North Dakota, is not going to stop its operations. Min- 
nesota will feel it. South Dakota will feel its influence, 
and these grain elevators and this great grain system that 
have so persistently defied the honest demands of the 
farming element for honest grading and honest inspection 
have been cutting their own throats. 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 47 

"I am seeking to assist them as much as I can in 
securing honest standards by securing a Government 
supervision that will insure confidence in every certificate 
that is being issued. 

"Every interest in the United States that is opposing 
the just demands of the rural population of this country 
will be called to account in the very near future. If the 
farmers can not secure justice in the only forum that will 
reach beyond state borders, they must necessarily take all 
matters into their own hands and govern all state legisla- 
tion. They do not ask for anything that is unfair. They 
do not ask for the enactment of any wild or radical 
theories. Give them straight, fair justice, and they will 
go on with their labors with patience without attempting 
to interfere with other lines of business. But I say, Mr. 
President, that they have been calling in vain for any real 
beneficial legislation. 

"Why, in my own state they have read over your rural- 
credits bill. They are not blind to the fact that it is 
topheavy, expensive, complex, and that it will never give 
them the character of relief that they seek. So to-day 
they are seeking to secure real beneficial legislation 
through state instrumentalities. If the governmental 
system is made simple and easy of operation, if it is made 
effective, there will be no necessity for any state legisla- 
tion upon the subject. But when they asked for bread 
you gave them a stone; when they asked for a rural- 
credits bill you gave them a mighty system, designed 
mainly to afford remunerative positions for deserving 
politicians. They have therefore been compelled to seek, 
through their own legislatures, the relief that they hoped 
would be nation-wide." 

Though there is much exaggeration, there is much 
truth in all of these statements and half truths are 



48 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

always effective in politics. Of course there is another 
side and throughout the North Dakota enthusiasts have 
failed to realize that it has been the enormous investment 
of capital in the flour mills of Minneapolis and Duluth 
that has given to them their principal market and that 
has greatly developed the foreign trade in flour which has 
had so much to do with increasing the value of the north- 
ern wheat. On account of the nature of the soil on which 
it is raised and of the cold and semi-arid climatic condi- 
tions which prevail in the wheat area of the Northwest, 
the wheat of North Dakota is of a peculiar and much 
prized quality. It makes a whiter flour and a flour which 
makes a much larger loaf than the same weight of other 
grades will make. This flour, when milled according to the 
Minneapolis processes, is especially valuable for export 
purposes, and is readily sold in the European markets. 
The result has been an ever-increasing demand for 
what is called the hard wheat white flour of the North, 
and the millers of Minneapolis have built up an enormous 
export trade. By means of this trade they have not only 
given an increased value to hard wheat throughout the 
world, but they have been often able to pay larger prices 
on the Minneapolis market for the raw product than has 
been paid at Chicago or other markets. All this, however, 
has been the result of many years of repeated experiments 
and of enormous expenditures of money both in mills, 
machinery and investigation. The flour industry of the 
city of Minneapolis is an enormous industry and the 
mills there located are gigantic structures. They have 
cost staggering sums of money. It is quite clear that 
without the expenditure of millions of dollars, which 
would have to be raised by increased tax levies which the 
people never would and perhaps never could pay, it would 
be impossible for North Dakota to build state-owned 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 49 

mills of sufficient capacity to grind its wheat into flour. 
The thought of duplicating the Minneapolis mills is 
absurd, and it is beyond belief that a state-owned and 
politically-managed state mill would employ the expert 
and high salaried millers, chemists, bacteriologists and 
similar employees all of whom are employed by the 
Minneapolis mills and the employment of whom in these 
days of expert and world-wide competition is absolutely 
essential to the milling industry. The capacity of the 
North Dakota state-owned flour mill at Drake is only 
125 barrels a day and that of the partially constructed 
mill at Grand Forks is only 3000 barrels, and this is at 
the present time, and for some years to come will be, the 
limit of the North Dakota possibility. Even these invest- 
ments have largely increased the state's bonded indebted- 
ness and have largely increased the state's rate of 
taxation, and, at the present time, on account of a lack of 
funds, building operations have been discontinued on 
the Grand Forks mill and elevator. Compared with 
this possible output we find that the annual production 
of the Minneapolis mills alone is 17,000,000 barrels. 
When we come to the question of terminal elevators and 
of storage we find that the possible capacity of the Grand 
Forks elevator will only be 1,500,000 bushels while that 
of the Minneapolis elevators alone is 56,150,000 hushels. 
Complaint was also made that in North Dakota there 
were no agencies, such as in Germany, France, Denmark, 
and New Zealand, for rural-credit associations and 
arrangements with the government to enable men of 
small means to make long-time loans for agricultural 
purposes, and that since land was noticeably good security 
its owners were compelled to pay unreasonably large rates 
of interest. Except in a few of the newly-settled and 
semi-arid counties in the western part of the state, this 



50 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

is a grievance of the past rather than of the present, for 
the owners of the well-tilled lands of the eastern portion 
have now, or at any rate prior to the agitation and dis- 
trust occasioned by the League's activities, have had but 
little difficulty in securing loans at reasonable rates. In 
the newer counties of the West, however, the complaint 
is more real and more insistent. Real because the land 
sooner or later will be worth the money loaned and 
though mortgages may have to be foreclosed and the 
investors may for a time be deprived of their interest 
they will be sure in the long run to profit by their invest- 
ment. Unreal because the semi-arid climatic conditions 
of the western portion of the state, the numerous crop 
failures, and the nomadic character of all early settlers 
and homesteaders make the investment a very uncertain 
source of income and the foreclosure of mortgages and 
the holding of vacant lands at a long distance and for a 
long time is the last of the desires of the teachers, min- 
isters and other persons who usually purchase the farm 
mortgages of the West. Unreal in short because unsatis- 
factory security always and necessarily means a high rate 
of interest and even the state itself can hardly afford to 
speculate with its investments. 6 

To a degree relief was afforded by the Federal Farm 
Loan Act of 191 6, which provided for the creation of a 
Federal Farm Loan Board, federal land banks, farm- 
loan associations and joint-stock land banks which can 

8 All that Governor Frazier asked in his inaugural address was 
that the contract rate of interest should be reduced from 10 to 8 
per cent, and as a matter of fact the rate on farm mortgages in the 
better farmed and more settled portions of the state for several years 
prior to that time had been lower than the rate requested. It is also 
a noticeable fact that the Bank of North Dakota when advancing money 
to the local banks, has itself exacted four per cent interest on the advance. 
How these local banks could well loan to the farmers out of these 
funds at a lesser rate than eight per cent and pay their expenses it 
is difficult to imagine. 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 51 

lend on farm-mortgage security and issue farm-loan 
bonds on the basis of these securities, the interest on the 
farm-loan bonds being fixed at a maximum of five per cent 
and on mortgage loans at six per cent. However, though 
in November 19 17 there were 3,365 farm-loan associa- 
tions in operation and the first annual report of the 
Federal Farm Loan Board showed that $29,824,655 had 
been loaned up to that time, it also showed that $219,- 
760,740, had been applied for; and the second report 
made to the 65th Congress also showed that from the 
time of the organization up to November 30, 19 18, 
though $406,542,109 had been applied for, loans to the 
amount of $131,992,765 had been cancelled or rejected 
and loans to the amount of $251,617,705 only, had been 
approved. The act, in short, was national in its scope, 
the demand was far greater than the supply, and above 
all the board was conservative in its methods of business 
and was limited to loans of fifty per cent of the value of 
the property plus twenty per cent of the value of the im- 
provements. It naturally insisted on its own appraisers, 
and it was necessarily more or less slow in its advances 
and in accepting and making the loans. The farmers on 
the other hand were anxious for their money and impa- 
tient at all delay, and they were especially incensed at the 
careful though proper scrutiny which was made of their 
securities and of the margins of safety that were required. 
They therefore hit upon the expedient of a state-owned 
bank and local loan agencies which would be subject to 
local public opinion and which would therefore be more 
liberal in their methods and in their appraisements. 

In all of their schemes, however, and in all of their 
protests against the banking interests and what their 
leaders choose to term "Big Business," the supporters 
of the League have lost sight of the fact that in the nature 



52 i NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

of things North Dakota never has been and perhaps 
never can be financially self-sustaining, and that even a 
state-owned bank cannot solve the difficulty. There is 
a limit to the taxation that the people of a state will 
bear and that limit will control the funds at the disposal 
of even a state-owned institution. It is true that state 
bonds may be sold and that their proceeds may be used 
for banking capital, but the interest on these bonds must 
be paid and the only means of payment is taxation. Even 
though all of the moneys which are raised by general 
taxation are required to be deposited in the central insti- 
tution, the current expenses of the state and its munici- 
palities must be met as they fall due and the deposits of 
the bank will be constantly drawn upon and depleted. 

And not only will it be impossible for the central bank 
to meet the demands of the farmers for regular farm 
mortgage loans but it will be impossible for it to finance 
the movement of the crops and to meet the demands of 
the local banks for funds to enable them to carry the 
accounts of the farmers and of the local merchants who 
in turn extend credit to the farmer during the long period 
which intervenes between sowing and reaping. 

In spite of the promises of its promoters, during the 
period between January i and August 31, 1920, the Bank 
of North Dakota was only able or willing to loan about 
$3,000,000 for agricultural purposes, while during the 
same period of time the loans which were made by the 
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis to the North 
Dakota private banks, to enable them to carry their 
farm customers, reached the total of $7,646,165.33, and 
the loans which were made by the state and national 
banks of St. Paul and Minneapolis to the North Dakota 
banks for the same purposes amounted to the sum of 
$23,836,804.19. Even these totals do not include the 



ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 53 

money which was directly loaned by these banks to their 
private North Dakota customers, nor the enormous 
volume of credit that was granted by the wholesale and 
jobbing houses of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth and 
of the eastern cities generally to the merchants of North 
Dakota and which was necessary in order to allow these 
merchants to sell on credit and to carry their farmer 
customers. 

No state of the American Union, and perhaps least 
of all North Dakota, can live by itself or unto itself. 

But even if all of the grievances be conceded, there is 
a serious question whether there was any need for the 
Non-partisan League as a political party. North Dakota 
is a purely agricultural state. Even the merchants, the 
bankers and the professional men depend upon the crops 
for their profits and for their success. The majority of 
them are themselves landowners. The higher the grades, 
the better the prices, the higher will be their own returns. 
Nearly all of them extend credit to the farmer and 
anxiously await the harvest in order that their bills may 
be paid. For many years the farmers have dominated 
the councils of the North Dakota legislature and never 
at any time has any measure been adopted which the 
farmers have really opposed or any measure of relief long 
been refused which they really believed in and really 
supported. We may even question, and the later develop- 
ments in both North Dakota and Minnesota seem to 
emphasize the doubt, whether the second election of 
Governor Frazier would ever have been opposed if the 
League had adhered to its original program and had not 
joined hands with the socialists and the I. W. W.'s, if it 
had left the school system and the courts alone, and if 
it had not sought to bring about its industrial system by 
coercion rather than by argument. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE TERMINAL ELEVATOR AND THE LEGISLATIVE 
SESSION OF 19 15 

The crash came in 19 15, during the last term of 
Governor Hanna. 

For many years the farmers had experimented with 
a number of cooperative enterprises, chief among these 
were so-called farmers' elevators. These elevators, how- 
ever, though operated on a profit sharing basis, shared 
their profits only with their own stockholders and soon 
became close corporations and but little different from 
their so-called old-line competitors. Crop failures often 
induced the poorer stockholders to sell their holdings to 
their richer associates, and the farmer's well-known love 
for dividends at the expense of necessary repairs and 
poor management occasioned frequent financial diffi- 
culties, which in most cases led to the stock being 
purchased by a few, and to a one-man control. They 
had to sell in the central markets, and to accept the 
grades of these markets. As their officers and agents 
had no seats on the boards of trade and chambers of 
commerce, they were compelled to sell through the 
regular commission houses. 

In order to meet this difficulty, an Equity Cooperative 
Exchange was next established in 1909, which soon built 
a terminal elevator of its own at St. Paul and undertook 
to act as a farmers' general selling-agency. The Chamber 
of Commerce of Minneapolis, however, unwisely denied 
a seat upon its floors to the officers of this organization, 

54 



LEGISLATIVE SESSION OF 1915 55 

and it was even charged that it threatened the eastern 
grain buyers that they could buy no more grain through 
its members if they patronized the Exchange. 

This action has occasioned much of the controversy, 
and much of the discontent. The reasons given for it 
at the time were that the rules of the board excluded 
institutions which shared their profits with their cus- 
tomers; and in defending this action in an address given 
before the marketing Committee of Seventeen of the 
American Federation of Farm Bureaus on November 6, 
1920, Julius K. Barnes, a former director-general of the 
United States Grain Corporation, stated that while he 
was not familiar with the rules of all exchanges his per- 
sonal opinion was "that to permit cooperative agencies to 
hold membership would be unfair to commission houses 
and other interests which have established and maintained 
the market system thus far. Huge investments in the 
marketing business by private firms would be jeopardized 
by the swing of business to the cooperative concerns from 
which profits would revert to farmers." 

A further reason which was given during the campaign 
of 1920 was that serious doubt had been entertained as 
to the financial responsibility of both Mr. Loftus, the 
president of the Equity Exchange who sought the mem- 
bership, and of the institution which he represented. 

However, if this was the reason, it was not the sole 
and controlling one. Since that time and in spite of the 
fact that legislation compelling the privilege has been 
threatened in both the state and national legislatures by 
the farmers' organizations, 1 the Chamber of Commerce, 
though expressing its willingness to admit members 

Federation of Farm Bureaus, adopted the following resolution: 

1 On November 6, 1920, the executive committee of the American 
"Whereas, The principal grain exchanges of the United States bar 

cooperative companies, that distribute their profits in proportion to the 



5 6 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

who share their profits with their stock-holders in the 
form of dividends, has strenuously declined to extend 
that privilege to those who share them with their 
customers generally. 

Whatever may have been the reason, and whatever 
justification or lack or justification there may have been 
for the course which was pursued, the action of the Min- 
neapolis Chamber of Commerce was a body blow to the 
cooperative movement in North Dakota; and thereafter 
the Equity Exchange was in no better position than the 
individual farmer. It had to sell through the regular 
commission houses. Its elevator could store but a limited 
quantity of grain, and it therefore could not possibly 
become an independent selling agency nor establish an 
independent market to which the eastern grain buyers 
would resort. 

The next step, then, was an attempt by the Society 
of Equity and the Equity Selling Exchange to induce the 
legislature of North Dakota to appropriate money for 
the building of a state-owned terminal elevator which, 
together with that already owned by the Equity Ex- 
change, it was hoped would be able to store enough wheat 
to create the independent market so earnestly desired. 2 

volume of business handled, from participating in the buying and sell- 
ing of farm products, and, 

"Whereas, The same prevents producers from collectively selling 
their own products on the markets of the country, thereby creating a 
monopoly, which is not in harmony with the spirit of American insti- 
tutions; 

"Therefore, Be It Resolved: That we call on the Federal Trade 
Commission, the Attorney-General or other public authority to take such 
steps as may be necessary to open the said markets to the membership 
of cooperative companies, unless the grain exchanges shall voluntarily 
do the same at once." 

The Minnesota Legislature of 1921 compelled the granting of the 
privilege. 

2 Just as in the early days, under the leadership of the Populists and 
of the Grange, the grain raisers of North Dakota had sought to obtain 
the erection of a similar warehouse at Duluth. 



LEGISLATIVE SESSION OF 1915 57 

In order that this might be done constitutionally and 
a fund created, in 19 12 they obtained an amendment to 
the constitution which authorized the legislative assembly 
"to provide by law for the erection, purchasing or leasing 
and operation of one or more terminal grain elevators in 
the states of Minnesota or Wisconsin, or both, to be 
maintained and operated in such manner as the legislative 
assembly shall prescribe, and provide for inspection, 
weighing and grading of all grain received in such 
elevator or elevators." 3 In 19 13 the legislature imposed 
"a mill tax of one eighth of a mill on every dollar of the 
assessed valuation of all taxable property for the years 
191 4, 19 1 5 and 19 1 6 for the creation of a sinking fund 
for the erection of such building and buildings," and 
further provided that the Board of Control should inves- 
tigate and submit plans to the legislature of 19 15. In 
19 14 another amendment was adopted which permitted 
the erection of a similar elevator within the borders of 
the state. 4 

So far there seems to have been no serious controversy, 
though many may have doubted the feasibility of the 
plan. In the fall of 19 14, however, a change of political 
fortunes occurred in the state, and Governor 'Louis B. 
Hanna not only defeated his progressive opponents at 
the primaries, but defeated the Democratic candidate at 
the fall elections. Though by no means a stand-patter, 
Governor Hanna in the past had had his political friends 
among this faction and was generally looked upon as 
one. His campaign at any rate had been largely fought 

3 The popular vote on this amendment was: 

Yes 56,488 

No 18,864 

*The popular vote on this amendment was: 

Yes 51,507 

No ^,483 



58 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

out on the theory of retrenchment and much stress had 
been laid on the extravagant creation of commissions and 
the increase of state expenditures. The mill-tax which 
had been levied for the new enterprise was therefore 
repealed and in its place an appropriation was made of 
$1000 for each of the years 19 15 and 19 16 and a sum 
equal to this amount was authorized to be expended in 
investigation and the drawing of plans, the results to be 
submitted to the legislature of 19 17. This was the begin- 
ning of a bitter fight in which the Society of Equity and 
the Equity Exchange took an active part under the 
leadership of its president, George Loftus of St. Paul, 
and which culminated in the legislative session of 19 15. 

At this session the committee reported against the 
enterprise and announced that after a thorough examina- 
tion of the question and the workings of state-owned 
elevators in the Canadian provinces, it had come to the 
conclusion that state-ownership was unwise and that the 
matter should be left entirely to cooperative effort. A 
bitter contest ensued in which the Society of Equity again 
took an active part and again under the leadership of 
George Loftus. Mass meetings of farmers were called 
and Senator La Follette's tactics of calling the roll, 
amidst hisses and jeers for those who had voted against 
the enterprise, were used, 5 and the report was finally, and 
it appears to the writer, unwisely adopted. Unwisely be- 
cause though the attempt might have proved a failure, 
it at that time called for the expenditure of a compara- 

5 These tactics antagonized many conscientious members of the legis- 
lature and probably had much to do with the adoption of the report of 
the committee and the defeat of the proposition for the erection of the 
elevator. 

However, many of the members voted against the measure on strictly 
business grounds, their chief objection being that not only was the money 
at the disposal of the legislature inadequate for the purpose but that, 
since the bill called for the erection of the elevator at St. Paul, it 



LEGISLATIVE SESSION OF 1915 59 

tively small sum of money and there can be no doubt that 
the people at that time wanted and demanded the con- 
struction of the elevator and both parties had solemnly 
committed themselves to its erection. 

Whether wisely or not, however, the abandonment of 
the measure furnished a fitting pretext for a revolution, 
and for the organization of a new party which should 
justify its creation by the charge that North Dakota had 
once more come under the control of the "Big Business" 
interests, and in February 19 15, the Non-partisan League 
was born. 

would place the enterprise outside of the control of the state and 
beyond the operation of its laws. The justice of this latter criticism 
now seems to be conceded by the Non-partisan management itself and the 
large elevator which is now under construction is at Grand Forks in 
North Dakota and not at St. Paul or elsewhere beyond the borders of 
the state. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LEAGUE AND ITS SOCIALIST LEADERSHIP 

Whatever may be the political and economic 'beliefs of 
the individual adherents of the Non-partisan League, 
there can be no> doubt that from the beginning its leader- 
ship has been composed of consistent socialists. 

It was a socialist, A. C. Bowen, who first suggested its 
formation. It was another socialist, A. C. Townley, who 
first put the L in it, and who furnished the dynamics. It 
was the socialist Charles Edward Russell who was the 
first editor of its principal organ, The Non-partisan 
Leader } and who first dictated and outlined the League's 
economic and industrial policies. It was still another 
socialist, Walter Thomas Mills, who suggested the 
greater part of its laws. 

The story of A. C. Townley is the old, old story, and 
shows with little variation the old, old evolution — 
poverty, a get-rich-quick-Wallingford dream of wealth; 
failure, a dream of a socialist state, and then a dream of 
kingship. Townley was born on a farm in northwestern 
Minnesota in 1880; he started in poverty, his education 
was that of the common schools of a pioneer country, but 
he dreamed of vast landed estates. He attempted to 
acquire lands in Colorado and failed. He then went to 
Beach in the western part of North Dakota and, looking 
over the rolling prairies, dreamed that they might be his. 
In 1909 he bought or leased thousands of acres of wild 
land. He obtained credit from the machinery and oil 
companies and from the local merchants. He bought 

60 



THE LEAGUE AND ITS LEADERSHIP 61 

tractors and farming implements. He believed that the 
crops of a virgin soil would make him rich in a few years. 
He dreamed of becoming a flax king. But he failed, and 
became a bankrupt, owing nearly $80,000. Having 
failed under the present industrial system, he became a 
socialist organizer and dreamed of a socialist state. The 
next step was to dream of himself as its dictator. Then, 
perhaps fearing that reverses might come, he promoted 
and is now a stockholder in a sisal plantation in the 
State of Florida. 

A. E. Bowen was twice candidate for governor of 
North Dakota on the Socialist ticket, his last attempt 
being made in 19 12. In 19 14 he was a candidate for the 
legislature from the thirty-ninth district, which at that 
time comprised the counties of Bowman, Golden Valley 
and Billings. During the session of 19 17, he acted as 
clerk of the House of Representatives. Prior to the 
organization of the League, he was a consistent socialist, 
and does not appear to have been identified with the 
Society of Equity, or any other farm organizations or 
movements. 

But neither Townley nor Bowen was a North Dakota 
farmer, and they could do little alone. They therefore 
sought the aid of a North Dakota farmer, Fred B. Wood, 
who was also a socialist, but one whose reputation and 
acquaintance among the bona fide farmers of the state 
might be of value to them. They induced Wood to sign 
a note, and with it they purchased an automobile. The 
three- then started out to obtain members, and thus the 
League began. 

Fred B. Wood had for some time been prominent in 
the councils of the Society of Equity, and though a landed 
proprietor, and perhaps the only real farmer among the 
Non-partisan League leaders, had in the past allied him- 



62 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

self with the Socialist party, and at one time had been a 
candidate for county auditor on the Socialist ticket of 
Ward County. 

Both Townley and Bowen had closely watched the 
struggle for the passage of the terminal elevator bill in 
the session of 1915, and for several years prior thereto, 
they had watched the career of the president of the 
Equity Exchange, George S. Loftus, and, though not 
themselves members of the Society of Equity, they had 
often sat in Loftus' audiences. From him they learned 
the political value of the class appeal, and from the suc- 
cess of his campaigns for the constitutional amendments 
which made possible the construction of the terminal 
elevators, they sensed the extent of the popular discontent 
and the solidarity of the farmer vote and influence. Loftus 
was an orator, impassioned in manner, but at the same 
time a careful student of his audiences. He understood 
the value of the claquer and made use of that method of 
influencing his auditors. 

It was his custom during an address to have in the 
room prominent farmers with whom he had conferred 
beforehand, who would answer his questions. In the 
midst of a speech, he would ask, "What is the price of 
hogs? Jones, you are a prominent farmer, you know; tell 
us," and Jones would proudly answer, and not only would 
Jones from that moment be his friend, but the audience 
as a whole would be gratified because the orator had taken 
council with them. Loftus indeed thoroughly understood 
the psychology of the popular audience, and Townley sat 
at his feet and learned from him. As an orator he is a 
replica of Loftus. 

Of George S. Loftus, William Langer, the former 
attorney general of the Non-partisan League, and later 
in 192 1 the candidate of the Independents for governor 



THE LEAGUE AND ITS LEADERSHIP 63 

in opposition to it, in a pamphlet entitled "The Non- 
partisan League" says: 

"Mr. Loftus was the embodiment of energy. When he 
first came to North Dakota to lead the fight he was in his 
prime, perhaps forty-one or forty-two years of age. He 
was a tall, healthy, robust, virile man. He was as fearless 
as he was uncompromising. He stumped North Dakota 
in behalf of the Equity Co-operative Exchange of St. 
Paul, Minnesota. The fight on Mr. Loftus was waged 
without regard to cost. The leading newspapers of the 
state deliberately lied about him. His methods were 
sneered at. He was ridiculed, maligned, cartooned, and, 
figuratively speaking, crucified. He fought not for 
socialism and personal power, but he fought these and 
his principles were the opposite. Instead of being an 
autocrat in control of an organization, he was, and he 
always remembered it and boasted of it, an employee. 

"Mr. Loftus was backed by United States Senator 
Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin, by John M. Anderson 
of St. Paul, and by Benjamin Drake of Minneapolis, by 
Congressman George M. Young of Valley City, and by 
others. It took money to promote the cooperative ideas 
as embodied in this company. It was Loftus' dream to 
make it the largest cooperative grain concern in the world 
and have it head the establishment of a new Board of 
Trade at St. Paul, Minnesota. 

"Repeatedly I had the pleasure of speaking with him 
on the same platform, and no enthusiastic political con- 
vention ever contained a finer spirit of cooperation than 
was ordinarily found in some of Mr. Loftus' meetings." 

Loftus, however, was not a socialist; and though his 
campaign methods were carefully studied and imitated, 
the League's political and economic theories were derived 



64 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

from more radical sources, principally from Charles Ed- 
ward Russell and Walter Thomas Mills. 

Charles Edward Russell was the first editor of the 
League's paper, The Non-partisan Leader, and had much 
to do with forming the early policies of the organization, 
and in directing its movements. He for many years had 
been a socialist writer and lecturer, and there can be no 
doubt that Townley sought his aid because he himself had 
formerly belonged to the same party. 

Walter Thomas Mills has not only been one of the 
League's principal campaign speakers but has taken a 
large part in drafting its legislation. 

He has been long known as a socialist writer, lecturer 
and teacher. He started as a Methodist minister. He 
then dreamed of wealth. He organized several stock- 
selling enterprises. These failed. He then dreamed of 
a socialist state and of a socialist world and he sought 
to make of himself a socialist dictator in Australia, in 
New Zealand and in America. 1 

In 1 916 he was the Socialist candidate for the office of 
United States senator from California. Prior to that 
time he had been one of the principal organizers of the 
great labor strike or soviet movement in New Zealand 
in 1 9 13 which sought to begin a socialistic or soviet pro- 
gram by assuming control of the railroads and of the 
shipping industries. It is a significant fact and one of 
the paradoxes of history, that this strike was put down 
by the farmers of the country whose opportunity to ship 
to foreign markets was so seriously threatened, and who, 

1 After all, this is the get rich Wallingford story of nearly all 
our American Socialist leaders. Even after becoming socialists they 
seldom refuse to profit and to acquire wealth under the present indus- 
trial system. Though professedly not believing in private property 
and in the unearned increment, they have perhaps a tenderer love and 
affection for these forbidden things than the members of any other class. 



THE LEAGUE AND ITS LEADERSHIP 65 

organizing as a voluntary working force and constabulary, 
armed themselves with American axe handles and them- 
selves loaded the ships which were lying idle at the 
wharves. It is significant because here in America the 
farmers have not only everywhere flocked to hear this 
socialist orator and organizer but have allowed him to 
take a prominent part in the amendment of their consti- 
tutions and in the enactment of their laws. 

The League's first business manager was David C. 
Coates, who some years before had been elected lieuten- 
ant-governor of Colorado, and had run for the office of 
city commissioner of Spokane, Washington, on the Social- 
ist ticket. He is credited with having perfected the 
organization of the I. W. W. in 1905. He was especially 
prominent as a director of the activities of the Non- 
partisan legislature of 19 17. He at one time was the 
editor of its principal paper, The Non-partisan Leader. 
He is credited with being the originator of the Non- 
partisan secret caucus which is held behind closed doors 
and a vote of the majority of which has always been made 
binding upon its members, obedience to the majority vote 
being exacted as a party pledge. 2 Later, in connection 

2 The following is the pledge which is exacted of the League's 
legislative candidates: 

ACCEPTANCE OF ENDORSEMENT 
BY THE 

NATIONAL NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Moffit, North Dakota, Sept. 18, 1920. 

"I, the undersigned, accept the endorsement as the Non-partisan League 
candidate for the office of member HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
from the twenty-seventh legislative district to run as an independent, 
my name to appear in the "Individual Nominations" column in the 
ballot to be voted on November 2, 1920. 

"I agree that, if I am elected, I will at all times vote and work for 
those measures that will assure justice to the farmers and workers and 
to all people of the state in accordance with the progressive and cardi- 
nal principles of the League and the wishes of my constituency. I agree 



66 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

with Arthur LeSueur he sought to perfect a collective 
bargaining agreement with the Independent Workers of 
the World for the employment of farm laborers and 
which, if perfected, would have made of North Dakota 
an I. W. W. closed shop. 

Townley's principal legal adviser was Arthur LeSueur. 
Governor Frazier's was William Lemke. 

Arthur LeSueur started as a railroad attorney. Later 
he acquired some wealth as a banker. He then became 
a socialist leader and agitator. For many years he has 
been the president of the People's College of Fort Scott, 
Kansas, which is a socialist correspondence law school 
and advertises on its letterheads the name of Eugene 
Debs as its chancellor. He established a school of in- 
struction for the organizers of the Non-partisan League. 
For many years he has been the principal attorney of the 
I. W. W. He conducted the defense of William D. 
Hayward, when that worthy was prosecuted by the Fed- 
eral Government during the World's War. In 1904 
and again in 19 10, he was the Socialist candidate for 
attorney general of North Dakota, and in 19 16, he ran 
for the office of president of the United States on the 
Socialist ticket. 

William Lemke also started in poverty. While a stu- 
dent at the University of North Dakota, he read Richard 
Harding Davis's novels, Soldiers of Fortune and Cap- 
tain Macklin. He dreamed of vast landed possessions 

further that during the session of the legislature I will at all times vote 
and work for those measures and legislative acts that are approved by 
majority of the members of the legislature elected by the Non-partisan 
League and organized labor. 

Name, Age, 65. 

Occupation, Farmer. 

Postoffice address, Moffit, N. D. 

Witness 

(Signed) 



THE LEAGUE AND ITS LEADERSHIP 67 

in Mexico. He organized a land company. He pur- 
chased a vast tract of Mexican land for a song, and by 
the help of a favorite minister of President Diaz, he 
hoped to become a Mexican magnate. He failed. 
He then dreamed of a socialist state in North Dakota 
and of himself as one of its triumvirate if not its dictator. 

This dream has been largely fulfilled for though as a 
rule the limelight has been thrown on Townley alone, it 
has been this formerly obscure lawyer of Fargo, who has 
been after all perhaps the most active figure in the whole 
movement. It has been he who has been the real po- 
litical boss, and it has been he who has sat in the 
legislative throne-rooms. The voice has been the voice 
of Townley and Russell and Coates and Walter Thomas 
Mills, but the hands have been the hands of William 
Lemke. It has been he who has selected the judicial 
candidates. It has been he who has largely directed the 
political campaigns. As chairman of the State Republican 
Central Committee it has been he who has had his hand 
upon the political levers and controlled the political 
machinery. It was he, we believe, who, in North Dakota, 
first made use of the term "Big Biz," which has proved 
so effective in all of the campaigns, and who first sug- 
gested the idea that the all-conclusive and only necessary 
argument to a class-conscious electorate was the mere 
statement that all who differed with the social and 
economic theories of the League were owned and con- 
trolled by the "Vested Interests." 

The League members of the Supreme Court, from 
whom much was expected and much was obtained, were 
Richard H. Grace, Luther E. Birdzell, Harry Bronson 
and James E. Robinson. These men were selected by 
William Lemke and their election was secured on the 
theory that they had committed themselves to the policies 



68 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

of the League. During the argument in the Supreme 
Court of the case of State ex rel. Twitchell v. Hall one 
of them, James E. Robinson, candidly admitted from 
the bench that he had made pre-election promises. 
During the campaign, also, Mr. Townley and other 
League orators frequently stated that the election of 
these Judges was of more importance to the success of 
the League program than even that of the governor him- 
self; and this statement was reiterated in the League's 
principal organ, The Non-partisan Leader, and in other 
campaign publications. 

Prior to his election, Richard H. Grace had been a 
party Socialist and organizer, Luther E. Birdzell had been 
a Single-Taxer, Harry Bronson had been a somewhat rad- 
ical Progressive Republican. 

James E. Robinson for many years had been a tax- 
title lawyer, and had accumulated some property in the 
business. In 1908 he conducted an unsuccessful campaign 
for Congress, in which he adopted the peculiar practise 
of collecting his audiences by ringing a cow-bell while 
standing at street corners, on railroad platforms, and on 
the top of freight cars. In 19 12 he was a candidate for 
the office of Justice of the Supreme Court on a platform 
in which he promised many fantastic legal reforms; and 
in which he denounced the lawyers and judges of the past 
as the tools of the big interests and the servants of 
corruption. 

This campaign was managed by his law partner Wil- 
liam Lemke, and though it was unsuccessful, it served 
both to bring Robinson's name before the people, and 
as a training school in political methods for his astute 
manager. 

Among other prominent North Dakota League leaders 
and organizers are : the lieutenant-governor Howard 



THE LEAGUE AND ITS LEADERSHIP 69 

Wood, who is a party socialist; the bank-examiner O. E. 
Loftus, who was a candidate for treasurer of North 
Dakota on the Socialist ticket in 1916; Howard Elliot, 
who at one time was state manager of the League, and 
before that time was a socialist, and in 19 14 was a candi- 
date for the legislature on the Socialist ticket; Beecher 
Moore, who also was at one time a state manager for the 
League and who was formerly a socialist organizer; O. 
M. Thompson, who for some time was one of the 
League's most effective organizers and public speakers, 
and was formerly the editor of The Iconoclast, the organ 
of the Socialist party of North Dakota, and the Reverend 
George A. Totten, who is at the present time the presi- 
dent of the Board of Administration, which has the 
control of all educational, charitable and penal institutions 
of the state, and who is also a socialist. In fact, prac- 
tically all of the prominent leaders of the League are 
or once were socialists, 3 and soon after the League was 
organized, Townley advertised in the socialist paper, 
The Appeal to Reason, for organizers and workers. 

Of all the leaders of the League Townley and Lemke 
have been the most influential and the most effective. 
They have been so because their desire has been for power 
rather than the acquisition of money or even for political 
office, and their ambition has been to be kingmakers 
rather than kings. Although corruption has often been 
charged against them and the League has in the past 
and is to-day handling vast sums of money, although its 
hirelings and especially its organizers and imported 
speakers and attorneys have been most liberally compen- 

3 In a pamphlet entitled "Sovietians, Wreckers of Americanism," 
Jerry Bacon, the owner of the Grand Forks Herald and himself a 
prominent and unusually successful farmer, gives the names of fifty- 
nine such persons. This list has so far never been denied or dis- 
credited. And what is true of North Dakota is equally true of Minnesota. 



70 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

sated, profiteering has no doubt not been absent and no 
doubt these men themselves have not been unwilling to 
share in the profits of subsidiary enterprises, it would be 
difficult to prove that they have themselves become rich 
or that the acquisition of wealth has been their main and 
paramount purpose. They have been lovers of power 
rather than vulgar looters, and in politics it is the lover 
of power who is always the most effective. 

As far as Governor Frazier himself is concerned, he 
is a stolid, unemotional, fullblooded and kindly-hearted 
farmer. At first he found it difficult to realize his promi- 
nence or the reason for his selection by the League, but 
lately he has come to believe that he must have under- 
rated his abilities. He was graduated from the Univer- 
sity of North Dakota in its earlier days, when it was little 
more than a high school, and owes his adoption by the 
League to the facts that he was a class-mate of William 
Lemke, that he was a farmer, and above all to the fact 
that he appeared to be one who would be willing to serve 
in the traces rather than to assume leadership. He is in 
no sense of the term a self-made man, as immediately 
after his graduation from the university, the sudden 
death of his father and older brother left him the sole 
heir to a fertile and well stocked farm in the richest 
portion of North Dakota. At all times he seems to 
have relied implicitly on the judgment of Townley and 
of William Lemke, and to have done everything 
that they dictated or suggested. At all times he has 
been willing that North Dakota should be a socialist ex- 
periment station and that a movement which was at first 
only a farmers' movement for better marketing condi- 
tions and which is still believed by the rank and file of its 
members to be such, should be made an entering wedge 
for the American International. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FINANCING OF THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

The members of the Non-partisan League of North 
Dakota have already contributed more money to its 
various campaigns and for the purposes of propaganda 
than can ever be expected to be voted by the legislature 
for the purposes of the League's various industrial enter- 
prises. It is clear that if these members had chosen to 
adopt the plan of the Society of Equity and to build and 
control elevators by cooperative effort, and had chosen 
to spend their money in this way, they would to-day be 
much farther on the road to the attainment of their de- 
sires. As it now is, however, millions of dollars have 
been spent in political agitation and but one small mill 
has been purchased and only one large joint elevator and 
mill has been partially constructed. 

Never indeed in the history of the country have such 
gigantic sums of money been at the disposal of or used 
by any political party or faction and though the opposi- 
tion is claimed to represent "Big Biz" the money at the 
disposal of its candidates has been pitiably inadequate for 
the conflict and it has been the lack of funds which in 
North Dakota has been one of the chief causes of its 
defeat. 

From the very beginning the League has had the ad- 
vantage of a leadership as astute as any ever known in 
America and of the services of men skilled in the arts 
of the demagogue, understanding thoroughly the political 

71 



72 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

value of the class appeal and the psychology of the mod- 
ern electorate. Perhaps the most brilliant of the ideas 
of these leaders has been that of a paid membership. 
The theory of the old political boss was to bribe the 
voters; the newer Non-Partisan theory is still to bribe 
its organizers and other hirelings by large salaries and 
large commissions 1 on the memberships obtained, and at 

""The organizers were first paid $2.00 for each cash member- 
ship. Later they were paid $4.00 for cash memberships and $3.50 for 
those which were paid for by the means of postdated checks. Still 
later even higher commissions were paid. Often these solicitors would 
obtain twenty and even more memberships in a single day. Their loyalty 
to the League can therefore hardly be wondered at, though it hardly can 
be said to be "without money and without price." 

In 1920 these organizers received the following instructions: 

"Organization Crews: Get at least four influential league mem- 
bers in each car. Get a book of checks from your local banks. Use 
the form checks provided by the league as little as possible. 

"Accept cash or cash checks in payment of memberships. Encourage 
every man to give you a check. Your enemies fight with cash — 
not with postdated checks. Make all checks payable to the captain 
of your crew. 

"On a separate slip of paper write the names and addresses of all 
men who refuse to join the league, giving one reason for their refusal. 
This is very important and should not be neglected. 

"League members pay $18 for each 2-year election period. Some 
may say because they paid their membership fee at the precinct meeting 
last winter or later, that their membership is paid for 2 years from 
that. This is not the correct understanding. League memberships are 
for the 2-year election periods. 

"Accept cash for memberships as far as possible. The I. V. A.'s 
(Independent Voters Association) don't accept postdated checks. They 
fight with cash. The men who pay cash are more likely to stick and 
work than the men who give postdated checks. 

"Use checks put out by banks upon which the check is drawn. Post 
dated checks are given by members though they do not ordinarily keep 
an account in the bank, but with the understanding that when the 
check is due they will place the money in the bank to pay the check. 

"It is better to not make the checks payable to the Non-partisan 
League, but to make them payable to one or more members of the 
crew. The checks made payable to members of the crew and endorsed 
by them are not so easily identified by the bankers and so it is more 
difficult to many of the bankers to interfere with the farmers paying 
the check. If members giving postdated checks can be persuaded 
to pay one or more dollars in cash, making the postdated check 15, 17, 
or something less than $18 makes the checks still more difficult of identi- 
fication as league membership checks and makes it harder for the bank- 
ers to interfere with their payment." 



THE FINANCING OF THE LEAGUE 73 

the same time to retain the loyalty of its lay members 
by making them pay to join the organization and thus to 
become stockholders in and financially interested in the 
business and political outcome of the movement. "We 
will stick" has been the battle cry of the League, and just 
as the gambler sticks to the roulette table on account of 
the money that he has placed thereon, so the members 
of the Non-partisan League, who at first paid $2.50, then 
$6.00 and then $9.00 for a year's membership, and who 
have in addition often subscribed large sums to the move- 
ment 2 and invested heavily in the stock of its chain-stores, 
banks, newspapers and other subsidiary enterprises, have 
been interested to see what the outcome of their experi- 
ment would be and have stuck to the game. 

The elections are biennial. In North Dakota alone 
the League boasts of 50,000 members. A contribution of 
only $18.00 for the two years from each member would 
make a state campaign fund of $900,000. To this sum 
may be added thousands of dollars of larger subscriptions 
and, now that the party is in control of the state of North 
Dakota, the services of large numbers of state employees. 
To it also may be added large sums of money obtained 
from the hundred-dollar subscriptions to the various 
league stores which have been made under an agreement 
that all over the sum of $10,000 can be used for spreading 
abroad the propaganda of the League and the amount 
of which can be guessed at when we realize that in 19 18 
the average membership of each store was 300. This 
would make a capital of $30,000 for each store, $10,000 
of which is to be used for store purposes and $20,000 

a At a meeting which was held at St. Paul after the June, 1919, 
primary a peremptory demand was made by Townley for a fund of 
$800,000 to be raised by voluntary subscriptions of $100 each by 
100 well-to-do farmers in each of the 80 counties of the state. This 
was to be in addition to the regular membership fees. 



74 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

for educational purposes. There may also be added 
the money for promotion purposes which was appro- 
priated by the legislature of 19 17, ostensibly for 
the encouragement of emigration, but really for the travel- 
ing expenses of the League's apostles. There may also 
be added the money for promotion purposes which has 
been appropriated from the $17,000,000 state bond issues 
for the various state-owned institutions and state boards, 
as well as the money which has been derived from volun- 
tary contributions to the stock of the League's numerous 
subsidiary newspapers, all of which are engaged in the 
general propaganda. 

It is to be remembered that the state has only 645,730 
inhabitants and the amount that can be expended in ob- 
taining but one vote is therefore very large. 

No doubt the idea of a paid membership was borrowed 
from the socialists. It furnished from the very beginning 
an enormous campaign fund and a large fund for the pay- 
ment of organizers. It made it possible to start a farmers' 
newspaper and to employ writers and cartoonists of 
marked ability, though perhaps not always of the highest 
veracity or the highest sense of civic obligation. It made 
it possible to hire and to rent scores of automobiles and 
to make the automobile an effective campaign agent. It 
made it possible to purchase aeroplanes and to make of 
Townley a modern Elijah, who would fly from place to 
place, and from state to state, and become a messenger 
from the skies. This last device not only made the 
prophets ubiquitous but it drew enormous audiences and 
saved advertising and hall rent. When the speck of the 
prophet's car was seen in the distance all that was neces- 
sary was to light a straw stack or a bonfire, and the orator 
would know when and where to alight and the expectant 
multitudes would throng to see and to hear. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE LEAGUE'S SUBVERSION OF THE PRIMARY SYSTEM AND 

THE CONSERVATIVE VALUE OF THE INITIATIVE 

AND THE REFERENDUM 

Among the interesting features of the Non-partisan 
movement have been the autocratic methods of the self- 
appointed leaders, their repudiation of the so-called 
primary election reforms, and their unique use of the 
system of primary elections. 

Primary elections were championed in this country for 
many years, and the primary system was finally adopted 
because the people felt that, under the old system of 
caucuses and conventions, our government had ceased to 
be representative, and fatuously believed that the only 
cure for the ills of democracy was more democracy, ^^ 
However, the people have no voice, and never have had *A^ 
any voice, in the nomination of the officers of the Non- j 
partisan League. As to Townley's own selection, we will^v^ 
let him speak for himself. In an address which was 
delivered in Grand Forks he said: 

"By the way, I want to be very frank with you this 
afternoon. The Grand Forks Herald, and the gang in 
the senate that killed House Bill 44 of the 19 17 session, 
one of the important league measures, and Everson down 
here, and all the fellows that oppose this organization, 
say that I was not elected president of the League. 

"They want to know what right I have got to call 
myself president of the Non-partisan League. I am go- 

75 



76 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

ing to very frank with you and explain what right I have. 
When Howard and his father and two or three more of 
us found that this thing would go, after I had been 
organizing for four or five days and put on everybody 
we saw during that time ; we saw that it would be neces- 
sary to have some kind of committee to take care of it. 

"We didn't have automobiles and gasoline enough to 
go to all the farmers in the state, and to Jerry Bacon 
and the Grand Forks Herald^ to ask them who this com- 
mittee should be. 

"So we got bus;;' and picked out a committee. The old 
gentleman named five men that we knew, and asked this 
little group of farmers if they thought these men would 
be all right. By the way, Howard was to be a member 
of that committee to begin with, because at first, the old 
gentleman did not know whether he wanted to or not, 
so Howard was proposed as such a member of the com- 
mittee. Mr. Wood was suggested as treasurer and vice- 
president. So we took a piece of paper and wrote the 
League program on it; and wrote the names of this com- 
mittee here up at the top; and because I had the idea 
they named me as chairman of the committee and wrote 
my name on there as president. 

"And then when we went to the farmers we showed 
them these names and said the League would be carried 
on under the direction of this committee. And there 
was a clause there that said in so many words that the 
management of the funds was to be in the hands of that 
committee. 

"And this fellow, and this fellow (pointing to men in 
the audience) and every one who joined the League, read 
the program and those names and signed up and paid his 
money. And I have got a kind of a foolish idea that 
all of those men who signed that paper voted for me at 



PRIMARY ELECTIONS 77 

that time. I don't know any one that voted against me. 

"And we have got the names of 40,000 farmers, in 
their own handwriting, on this paper, subscribing to this 
program and to those men to carry out that program. 
I think that was a pretty fair election. 

"About as good as we could accomplish at that time, 
with the machinery we had. Of course, it might have 
been better to have got 4,000 or 5,000 farmers to come 
down to Grand Forks and hold a convention; but we 
could not have convinced them at that time that they 
ought to come. 

"I will tell you who would have been here if we had 
tried to do that. There would have been about half a 
dozen politicians and corporation lawyers, and a news- 
paper man or two. But you farmers would not have 
come. We had to show you first that something should 
be done, before you would come. Now that is how I 
came to be president of the committee and how these 
other men came to be members of the committee." x 

1 In the same connection Justice James Robinson, one of the League's 
members of the Supreme Court and one of its principal publicists said: 

SATURDAY EVENING LETTER 
By Justice J. E. Robinson 

"August 17, 1918. After a harvesting outing of two weeks, I am 
now at my post of duty. The other Judges are all out harvesting and 
I do not look for them to return until the end of the month. 

"And now, as a Rube fresh from the country, I want to submit a few 
pointers concerning my old friend, Townley. It seems that among a 
few of his church deacons and ex-bishops there is a kind of schism. 
They say that he is a money-grabber and a self-appointed autocrat; 
but what of Holy Moses, General Booth of the Salvation Army, and Mrs. 
Mary Baker Eddy, the Christian Scientist? We read of Moses 
going up into a mountain and there conferring with the Lord for 
some thirty days, so the poor Hebrew children contrived to pass their 
hours of idleness by the making of a golden calf. This so enraged 
Moses that he caused three thousand of the poor people to be slain. 
Then Moses had a schism among his elders and deacons. Korah, Dathan 
and Abiram said to him: 'Wherefore lift ye yourselves above the 
congregation of the Lord? Is it a small thing that thou hast brought 
us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in 



78 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Frequently in private conversations in the hotel lobbies, 
and upon the railroad trains, Townley has himself stated 
that if he were to die the League would be torn asunder; 
and he has as frequently justified his autocratic rule by 
stating that the farmers were not intelligent enough to 
look after their own interests, and that an autocrat was 

the wilderness except thou makest thyself altogether a prince over us.' 
Then Moses was very wroth, and he at once arranged with the Lord to 
have the earth open its mouth and swallow those rebellious men and 
their innocent wives and children 1 Now, our Townley has never 
did anything like that. 

"And General Booth, you know how he organized the Salvation 
Army, appointed himself general and supreme commander and treasurer 
and appointed all its officers and how he had to encounter schism after 
schism; and Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, she had her storms upon storms, 
she had her schisms — her Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who declared that 
she was incapable as a leader, and who attempted to supplant her, but 
she quietly threw them out of the church which she had organized. 
Of course, in a way, General Booth and Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy were 
self-appointed leaders and autocrats. Naturally they assumed control 
over the society which they formed and organized, and every one by 
joining the society assented to the rule; and so it is with Townley 
and his League. Everyone, by paying his membership fee and join- 
ing the League, has voted for Townley as its president and general 
manager. He holds office by the unanimous vote of every member of 
the League. Hence, it cannot be truly said that he is self-appointed. 
However, it is true that he is the pope and the executive head of the 
League. He employs and pays a whole army of League workers. He 
says to one, 'Go,' and he goeth; and to another, 'Come,' and he 
cometh; and to another, 'Do this,' and he doeth it, or he is excused from 
service. Townley is a thinker and a faithful worker and he gives to the 
business of the League all his time and thought. His avowed purpose is 
to advance great civic reforms and to better the condition of the people. 
If he fail to 'deliver the goods' he will soon cease to be president, as the 
Leaguers will cease to pay membership fees. Their payment is a free 
will offering. It is voluntary. It is not a tax. 

"An ex-bishop of the League who is opposed to all forms of 
autocracy has just written for the St. Paul Dispatch several letters. 
He concludes by calling on the farmers to assume control of the League 
and at once to throw off the burden of the autocrat and his machine. He 
thinks the best way to remedy the defects of the League is to cut off 
its head, though he does in no way attempt to show how it may be 
done. If the ex-bishop has a capacity for leadership, the formation of 
leagues and the advancement of civic reforms he is free to organize a 
model league of his own and to show how it can be run without any 
form of autocracy. In the formation of leagues Townley has no monopoly 
or patent right. 

The gate ajar stands free to all 

Who seek through its salvation." 



PRIMARY ELECTIONS 79 

absolutely necessary to the success of their cause. When 
twitted with this autocracy and even when led against 
their desire to admit the weaknesses and the faults, and 
often the disloyalty of their leaders, the rank and file of 
the organization usually answer that Big Business has its 
bosses and that Townley and his cabinet are at any rate 
working for the interests of the farmers and of the 
masses. 

What is true of the League of North Dakota is equally 
true of the National Organization; its officers are self 
appointed and its board of management is self-perpetuat- 
ing, and that management has even the power to amend 
the constitution or articles of association without consult- 
ing the membership. 

These articles of association contain the following 
remarkable sections : 

SECTION 3 

"The management and control of this association is 
hereby vested in a state committee of each affiliated state, 
and in a national committee and national executive com- 
mittee. While the government and control of this associa- 
tion is so vested that those placed in charge may build 
the organization and maintain and protect it against 
enemies from without and within, yet the members reserve 
to themselves all political power. And a majority of the 
members of this association may indorse and support, or 
oppose and defeat, any candidate for national office, and 
may propose and carry out any national legislation; and 
a majority of the members of this association in any state, 
may indorse and support, or oppose and defeat, any can- 
didate for state office, and may propose and carry out 
any state legislation. 



80 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

SECTION 4 

"The state committee of each affiliated state shall con- 
sist of three or five resident members. The first state 
committee shall be appointed by the national executive 
committee, and they shall hold office until the next state 
convention and until their successors are elected and 
qualified. 

SECTION 5 

"The national committee shall consist of the national 
executive committee, and of the chairman of the state 
committee of each affiliated state, who shall hold office 
by virtue of their position as chairman. 

SECTION 6 

"The national executive committee shall consist of three 
members, one of whom shall be the chairman thereof. 
The first national executive committee shall consist of: 
A. C. Townley, who shall be chairman of the national 
executive committee and president of the National Non- 
partisan League, and he shall hold his office for a period 
of two years from January i, 1917 ; William Lemke, who 
shall hold his office for a period of four years from said 
date; and F. B. Wood, who shall hold his office for a 
period of six years from said date. 

"Thereafter, at the end of each two-year period, the 
national executive committee shall nominate one person 
as a candidate to succeed the member of the committee 
whose term expires. Such nomination subject to the 
approval of the national committee, 



PRIMARY ELECTIONS 81 



SECTION 7 

"The national executive committee shall appoint a state 
executive secretary and manager for each affiliated state, 
who shall maintain an office within the state and who shall 
be the executive officer of the association for such state, 
and secretary of the state committee. He shall be sub- 
ject to directions, instructions and removal by the national 
executive committee. . 

SECTION 9 

"The national committee shall hold its annual meeting 
on the first Tuesday of December in each year, and may 
hold such other meetings as shall be called by the chair- 
man of the national executive committee, or two members 
of said executive committee, these meetings to be held 
at the national headquarters. A majority of the national 
committee shall have authority to remove any member 
of any committee or any officer acting for or in behalf of 
this association. 

SECTION 10 

"The national executive committee shall be the execu- 
tive and managing board of this association and, except 
as limited by these articles, shall have full and complete 
power and authority to fix, collect and disburse the mem- 
bership fees and other funds of this association; to control 
and supervise, generally and specifically, the organization 
work in the several states; to prepare rules and regula- 
tions for the affiliation of other political and industrial 
organizations ; and shall have power and authority to do 
any and all acts that a private individual may lawfully do. 



82 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

But it shall have no authority to bind the members of this 
association for any financial obligation in excess of the 
dues paid or agreed to be paid by the members. 

SECTION 12 

"The chairman of the national executive committee 
shall be the chief executive officer of this association, and 
except as restricted by these articles or by resolution or 
motion adopted by the national committee or national 
executive committee, is empowered to do, perform and 
carry out, all and singular, the matters, facts and things 
authorized to be done by the articles in carrying out the 
purposes of this association. 

SECTION 14 

"In case a vacancy occurs in the national executive, na- 
tional or state committee, then such vacancy shall be filled 
for the unexpired term by the remaining members of 
such committee. 

SECTION 15 

"These articles may be amended at any regular or 
special meeting by a majority of the national committee: 

SECTION 17 

"The national executive committee shall keep accurate 
accounts of all moneys received and disbursed by it in 
carrying out the work of this association; and the books 
and accounts thereof shall at all times during business 
hours, be open to the inspection of the members of the 
national committee; and shall be audited by a public 



PRIMARY ELECTIONS 83 

accountant as often as may be ordered by the national 
executive or national committees. 



SECTION 18 

"All other matters, facts, things, powers and duties, 
proper and necessary to exercise in carrying out the func- 
tion and purposes of this association, not herein expressly 
provided for, are hereby expressly delegated to the juris- 
diction of the national executive committee. 



SECTION 19 

"These articles shall be adopted and become the funda- 
mental law of this association upon receiving the approval 
and signature of the members of the state committees 
of any two states, and shall be approved and indorsed by 
all states now or hereafter affiliated with this association, 
or being organized under this association, in like manner." 

Of the nature and purpose of these provisions let 
Walter Thomas Mills himself speak. In a recent 
pamphlet he said: 

"There can not be a war except between at least two 
armies. There can not be an army without some one in 
command. That is the nature of fighting machines. Any 
other scheme in carrying on a war must necessarily involve 
an army on one side and a mob on the other. When the 
mob is organized, equipped and ready for battle, it ceases 
to be a mob. Then there are two armies. 

"With these considerations in mind, let it be asked: 
Is the Non-partisan League now a democratic organiza- 
tion in the sense that in the selection of its officers, in the 
writing of its program, and in the carrying on of its work, 



84 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

it is now governed by its own membership after the same 
manner in which it proposes that the state and nation 
shall be governed by its citizens after the state and na- 
tional programs of the League shall have been adopted. 

"The answer is that it is not. The battle is on now, 
and the war for democracy is at its worst. There must 
be a commander now. When the war is over and the 
democracy for which the League is fighting has been es- 
tablished, neither a League nor a commander will then be 
necessary. 

"Let it be plainly said. It is impossible to fight the 
political machines, built, financed and managed by the 
great private monopolists, except by the building of a 
machine with which to fight them. The League came into 
existence to fight a battle, and battles can be fought only 
with some one in command. Townley is in command. 
There is absolutely no way by which the enemies of the 
common good can break into the organization, secure a 
voice and influence in its councils or divert it from its 
purpose. Neither are they able to do so in this instance 
as they have done so many times before, discredit who- 
ever is in command of a progressive movement through 
personal abuse, and in that way make impossible an effec- 
tive battle by destroying confidence in the man in com- 
mand. No other man living and now in public life in 
this, or any other country, could command a vote of con- 
fidence so absolutely unanimous as could A. C. Townley 
were the case to rise." 

But if the management of the League as a league is 
autocratic, that of the movement as a political organiza- 
tion is equally so. It has, however, skillfully combined 
the autocratic with the popular. It has skillfully manip- 
ulated the primary election system as a means to its own 



PRIMARY ELECTIONS 85 

ends, and in doing so has resurrected the worst features 
of the caucus and of the convention. 

The purpose of the primary system was to eliminate 
the political boss and to make it possible for any one to 
be a candidate at the polls. The League has so manip- 
ulated the primaries as to accentuate boss control. It has 
forced its opponents to resort to its methods and it has 
sounded the death knell of the real primary. 

Its plan has been to hold conventions composed of 
Townley-appointed delegates, there to nominate the can- 
didates of the League who shall run in the primaries 
of the dominant political party of the state, 2 to pledge its 
members to support those candidates, and by this means 
to obtain control not only of the dominant political party 
but of the state government. It is in fact a political party 
though in name a league, but by being a league and work- 
ing through the primaries it is able to avoid the disad- 
vantages of being a third party. It is able to make use 
of the political machinery of the dominant party, and in 
national campaign years, and in the years in which United 
States senators are to be elected, to obtain the help of the 
national management which cares but little for the local 
interests of the state and is always unwilling that its fol- 
lowers shall vote in the opposite political column. 

The League then has had the advantage of both the 
primary and the caucus systems. It has had the advantage 
of a definite economic program to which all of its mem- 
bers and candidates have been committed. Irrespective 
of their original party affiliations its members vote for 
the same ticket in the primaries of the dominant party, 

2 In North Dakota and in Minnesota the League sought to control 
the Republican primaries and all of their members and by far the 
greater number of the Socialists voted therein. In Montana, however, 
where the democratic party was in the ascendancy, the members of 
the League and the Socialists voted in the Democratic primaries. 



86 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

and for the same persons at the fall elections. On the 
other hand its opponents as a rule have had no definite 
economic program to put forward, and have had nothing 
with which to seduce. Each candidate has stood entirely 
upon his own feet and there has been no cohesion. The 
League has been effective in the legislatures because each 
of its legislative candidates has been pledged in advance 
to subscribe to the will of the majority and to vote for 
anything which the majority in the Non-partisan legisla- 
tive caucuses may approve, and those caucuses have been 
held behind closed doors and have been controlled by the 
League's leaders and by the League's claquers. 

But there is a silver lining to every cloud. Many of 
us feared that the initiative and the referendum would 
only be agencies of unrest and of radicalism. North 
Dakota, however, has demonstrated that they can be put 
to conservative uses. Above all, she has shown us that 
the people as a whole are sound upon economic issues, 
and upon questions of basic right and basic justice; and 
that when these matters are properly presented to them 
and they have really had an opportunity to think, they 
will generally vote wisely and well. She has shown us 
but another example of the fact that while a popular 
majority will often enthusiastically support a demagogue 
and elect him to office, it will as often vote against the 
very economic issues which he advocates. 

Though indeed in North Dakota, the Non-partisan 
legislature deprived a conscientious and capable superin- 
tendent of public instruction of practically all of her 
powers, the people restored these powers to her by a 
referendum vote. By the same means, they adopted an 
anti-red-flag law which the Non-partisan leadership had 
repudiated. They compelled an examination by the State 
Auditor of the books of the Bank of North Dakota, 



PRIMARY ELECTIONS 87 

which before had been denied to them. They prohibited 
that bank from loaning to whomsoever it pleased, and 
otherwise safeguarded its investments. They no longer 
made it obligatory upon the county treasurers to deposit 
their funds in the central state bank, and thus prevented 
that bank from loaning to whomsoever it pleased. They 
repealed an autocratic law which had done much to 
destroy the freedom of speech and of the press. They 
repealed a statute which made it a criminal offense to 
criticise the Non-partisan industrial program. 



CHAPTER X 

THE LEAGUERS LEGISLATIVEAND CONSTITUTIONAL 
PROGRAM 

The Non-partisan League had a decided majority during 
the legislative sessions of 19 17 and 19 19, and the legis- 
lation of those years may fairly be said to be an expres- 
sion of its program. 

The enactments of the session of 19 17 included: 
A farmers' cooperative law; a grain inspection law 
which brought the grain elevators under close state con- 
trol as to weighing and grading; a law guaranteeing bank 
deposits; the creation of a dairy commission which was 
entrusted with publishing information in regard to dairy- 
ing and detecting and punishing unfair dealing; a fifteen 
per cent inheritance tax on large fortunes; a state welfare 
commission; a highway commission; legislation which 
compelled railroads to furnish cars to all shippers alike, 
sidetracks to coal mines, and sites for elevators and ware- 
houses on their rights of way and which required them 
to pay their employees twice a month ; a law which gave 
compensation to those who had served time in jail and 
had later been found innocent; a law taxing motor- 
vehicles according to size, and a law reducing tax assess- 
ments on farm improvements to five per cent of their 
actual value. 

The legislation of the session of 19 19 included: 
The total exemption from assessment of all structures 
and improvements on agricultural lands and the exemp- 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 89 

tion of the tools, implements and other equipment of the 
farmer to the amount of $1,000 ; the exemption of house- 
hold goods to the amount of $300, of clothing and 
personal effects to the amount of $300, of town homes to 
the amount of $1,000, and of the tools of the working- 
man generally to the amount of $300. 

The establishment of the Bank of North Dakota which 
was empowered to receive deposits and was given the 
custody of the proceeds of all tax levies and of all public 
funds, and was authorized to make loans on proper se- 
curity and on "the real or personal property of state- 
owned utilities, enterprises or industries, in amounts not 
exceeding its value." The state was also by a constitu- 
tional amendment empowered to sell bonds supported by 
farm and other real estate mortgages to the amount of 
$10,000,000, the proceeds of which were to be deposited 
in the Bank and handled by it. 

A system of state hail insurance which levied a flat tax 
of three cents an acre on all tillable land in the state and 
in addition required the farmers to pay a sufficient assess- 
ment on the number of acres which each used for the 
production of damageable crops to meet the remainder 
of the expense and claims. Under this act the amount 
to be paid for total loss was limited to $7 an acre, and all 
farmers were considered to be subject to the act unless 
they gave an official notice of their withdrawal. 

The creation of an industrial commission, with an 
appropriation of $5,000,000, which was to superintend 
and control all the state industries and industrial 
establishments. 

An amendment to the grain inspection law of 19 17, 

which, in addition to giving the State Grain Inspector the 

V power by himself or through his deputies of inspecting all 

grain marketed in the state, gave him the further power 



X 



9 o NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

to inspect weights and measures, to establish fair margins 
on which elevators might do business, to compel payment 
for dockage, to enforce federal grades on grain bought, 
to establish uniform grades for grain seeds and other 
agricultural products and to alter and modify the same 
and to grant and revoke elevator and buyers' licenses. 

An appropriation for a survey of the state's coal re- 
sources and possible paying developments. 

A soldiers' compensation law with a payment of $25 
for each month of service. 

A disability compensation for workmen and work- 
women, with funds managed by the state, which, though 
applicable to practically all industrial employees and even 
to stenographers and other office help, was not made ap- 
plicable to the railroad or to the farm workers. 

An eight-hour day for women in the industries, but not 
on the farms. 

A minimum wage for women in the industries, but not 
on the farms. 

The inspection of coal mines. 

A law directed against the use of injunctions in labor 
disputes. 

A full train crew law and a law requiring proper shelter 
and protection for railway repair-men. 

A state income tax which attempted to make a distinc- 
tion between earned and unearned incomes. 

A home-building association to advance funds for the 
building of town homes and the acquiring of farms for 
those who could furnish 20 per cent of the cost. 

A law establishing maximum railroad rates based on 
distance. 

A law reducing the number of papers for official print- 
ing from three or more to one in each county, the paper 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 91 

to be first selected by the Industrial Commission, and after 
1920 by a vote of the people of the county at each regular 
election. 
x An absent voters' law. 

An act which authorized the seizure of mines and nec- 
essary industries even in the time of peace. 

An act creating the office of State Sheriff under which 
the newly cheated officer "is given all the powers of other 
sheriffs," and the power: 

"To enforce all the criminal laws of this state; to cause 
criminal complaints to be filed against persons violating 
the same; to assist in detecting and investigating crime, 
procuring evidence thereof, and in arresting and prosecut- 
ing persons charged therewith; to suppress riots; prevent 
affrays and preserve law and order throughout the state ; 
to supervise the members of the state constabulary in the 
discharge of their official duties; to employ, with the con- 
sent and approval of the governor, special agents to carry 
out the duties of his office and the provisions of this act, 
provided that not more than three persons shall be em- 
ployed as special agents at any one time; to call, with 
the approval of the governor, into the service of the state 
any members of the state constabulary at any time that it 
may be deemed necessary to preserve law and order in any 
part of the state or to apprehend any person who has 
violated any laws of this state ; to make suitable rules and 
regulations for the state constabulary; to order and direct 
any sheriff to render any special or particular service 
which he may deem necessary for the purpose of carrying 
out the provisions of this act; to cooperate with and as- 
sist the governor in the performance of his official duty 
for the faithful execution of all laws." 

No doubt much if not all of this legislation will appear 



9 ft NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

to the casual reader to be unobjectionable, and all the 
subject matters which are covered are probably fit fields 
for legislation. So far, however, we have said nothing 
of the terroristic legislation of the extra-session of 19 19, 
to which we will devote a separate chapter. A closer 
analysis also discloses many objects of criticism in the leg- 
islation which has been outlined as it indicates the begin- 
ning of an autocracy and an entering wedge for the con- 
trol of the state by a socialist hierarchy. 

The legislature abolished a tax commission which was 
composed of three men, and substituted a one-man office 
in its place. It did this both for the specific reason that 
it could not control the activities or the discretion of two 
of the members of the former board, and for the general 
reason that a hierarchy can always control one man easier 
than it can control three. 

The Bank of North Dakota presents no new idea. 
There have been many such banks though unfortunately 
they have all met with disaster. There is merely involved 
the old question of governmental efficiency and the old 
question of political honesty. Can political parties and 
factions resist the temptation of tampering with their 
bank officials and inducing them to grant them special 
favors? Can business and politics walk hand in hand? 
It is hard for a political appointee to scrutinize closely 
the securities of a political organization, and of politicians 
and the friends of politicians to whom perhaps he owes 
his appointment. It is equally hard for political leaders 
and office holders to choose bank presidents and cashiers 
with an eye single to their efficiency. The first president 
of the Bank of North Dakota had had no real banking 
experience. In its short career the Bank of North Dakota 
has certainly shown favoritism and lack of business judg- 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 93 

ment; and the uses to which the institution has been put 
can hardly appeal to the conservative mind. 

The creation of this bank was heralded by an announce- 
ment in one of the League's pamphlets to this effect: 

"From the foregoing it may be said that the Bank of 
North Dakota will save the people of North Dakota 
say $10,000,000 a year of interest payments on farm 
mortgages. It will save about $4,000,000 on interest 
rates on the personal loans of merchants and others. It 
will save great sums in the services it will render for the 
local bank. It will make available for use in North Da- 
kota all the public funds from the date of their collection 
in taxes to the hour of their final expenditure for the 
public purposes for which they are collected. It will pro- 
vide funds for home building at the lowest possible 
interest rate. It is not unreasonable to estimate that in 
interest rates and in increased funds available for busi- 
ness within the state it will be worth $20,000,000 a year 
to the people of North Dakota." 

On November 25, 1920, however, Mr. Carl Kositzky, 
the state auditor, reported that: 

"The Bank of North Dakota has loaned about 
$2,000,000 on real estate at a cost of about $92,000. 
During the same period it has made these loans the Board 
of University and School Lands has loaned $3,200,000 
to the farmers of the state at an administration cost of 
$9,000. The people believed the Bank of North Dakota 
was organized as a rural-credits institution, and it should 
be made such an institution. The success of the Board of 
University and School Lands is reason enough for plac- 
ing it in charge of the bank." * 

x The Board of University and School Lands has the control of 
the permanent investment of the school funds which are derived from 
the federal land grants. At this time its majority was composed of 



94 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

A report which was made by the president of the 
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in the fall of 1920 
also stated that during approximately the same period 
though the Federal Reserve Bank and the banks of St. 
Paul and Minneapolis loaned to North Dakota for purely 
agricultural purposes the sum of $31,482,969.52, the 
Bank of North Dakota appeared to be only able to loan 
the sum of $3,002,680.91. 

It is quite clear indeed that the desire of the League's 
leaders was not the creation of a bank which should safe- 
guard the public funds or even aid the needy farmer, but 
the creation of an agency which should be able to loan 
those funds to the state's public and quasi-public institu- 
tions and enterprises, and finance banks and other institu- 
tions which supported their cause and were willing to 
accommodate their members. The control of the bank 
was placed in the hands of an industrial commission. The 
members of this commission were appointed by the gover- 
nor and were removable by the governor. In this bank 
all of the "state, county, township, municipal and school 
district funds and the funds of all penal, educational and 
industrial institutions and all other public funds" were re- 
quired to be deposited. For the support of the bank also 
a bond issue of $2,000,000 was authorized. The funds 
at the disposal of the bank then would include all of the 
money raised in the state by taxation, the proceeds of the 
bond issues and all of the money raised by the sale of the 
hundreds of thousands of acres of the federal land grant 
for educational purposes, while awaiting permanent in- 
vestment by the members of the Board of University and 
School Lands. 

Miss Minnie Nielson, the state superintendent of public instruction, 
who was elected by the conservatives, and William Langer, the attorney 
general, and Thomas Hall, the secretary of state, who though elected 
by the Non-partisans had broken from them. 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 95 

According to the terms of the act any and all of these 
funds, without any limitations whatsoever, could be loaned 
to "any bank or banking association within or without the 
state upon such terms and conditions as the Industrial 
Commission shall determine" and to "other departments, 
institutions, utilities, industries, enterprises or business 
projects of the state." No requirements were made as to 
security and it is perfectly apparent that the primary pur- 
pose of the Bank was to finance not only the League's 
industries but also the banks that were favorable to the 
League. This intention is further evidenced by the pro* 
visions of the act in regard to private loans. The statute 
provided that the bank should not "make loans or give 
its credit to any individual, association or private corpora- 
tion except loans secured by duly recorded first mortgages 
on real estate in the State of North Dakota in amounts 
not to exceed one-half the value of the security, or secured 
by warehouse receipts issued by the Industrial Commis- 
sion or by any licensed warehouse within the state, in 
amounts not to exceed ninety per cent of the value of the 
commodities evidenced thereby." 

In short, the bank was not Intended to be and was not 
used as a rural-credit agency. It was intended to be an 
agency which should be able to finance the state's public 
utilities, and to aid the local banks which were favorable 
to the League and to the League's members. These local 
banks were deprived by the act of the county, school and 
other tax funds which were formerly deposited in them. 
If they desired the use of any of these funds, it was now 
necessary for them to apply to the Bank of North Da- 
kota for deposits. The officials of the State Bank of 
North Dakota could favor whom they pleased. The 
records of the last year conclusively show that they fa- 
vored and gave banking capital to the banks that were 



96 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

favorable to them. They show that though the greater 
portion of the taxes are paid by the residents of the richer 
and better farmed counties of the eastern portion of the 
state, the majority of the banks that were favored with 
state loans were situated in the western portion, and that 
it was in the western portion of the state that the 
League's principal political support was to be found. 
The act gave the bank the power, after it had made loans 
to the local banks, to withdraw them suddenly and prac- 
tically to bankrupt the local institutions on any sign of 
insubordination. It made it possible to threaten banks 
with the creation of the financing of rival institutions if 
they refused to buy the bonds of the newly created public 
industries or to subscribe to the stock of the League's 
subsidiary organizations. It made it possible for the offi- 
cers and organizers of the League to promote and sell 
stock in local banks and other institutions, under the 
promise to the subscribers that the central bank would 
aid in financing the enterprises. 

It is also worthy of notice that under the terms of the 
various acts the books and records of the Bank of North 
Dakota cannot be examined by the State Auditor, who is 
an elective officer and subject to public control but are 
examined by the Bank Examiner, who is an appointee of 
the Governor; and that the bank is thus brought entirely 
under the supervision of the socialist hierarchy. 

Worthy of notice also is the fact that even the State 
Bank Examiner is authorized to examine the bank merely 
as to the assets which are "in its possession and under its 
control with sufficient thoroughness of investigation to 
ascertain with reasonable certainty whether the valuations 
are correctly carried on its books," and that such officer 
has no authority whatever to examine into or to audit the 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 97 

liabilities of the institution, or even the assets which are 
not in its possession. 

The grain grading and inspection act provided for 
appointment by the Governor alone of a member of the 
faculty of the North Dakota Agricultural College as an 
inspector of grades, weights and measures. 

To this inspector was given the power to establish 
uniform grades and to issue licenses to all warehouses 
of grains, seeds and other agricultural products, to hear 
and determine appeals from the decisions of his subordi- 
nates and to conduct investigations with the power to 
subpoena witnesses and administer oaths and punish for 
contempt. It also conferred upon the inspector the ex- 
traordinary power to establish a reasonable margin to be 
paid producers of grain by warehouses, elevators, and 
mills. The act also provided that in establishing grades, 
dockage should be considered as being of two classes, 
first, that having value, and second, that having no value; 
the former to be considered and paid for at its market 
value. The inspector was also given the power to sus- 
pend or revoke licenses. It was made unlawful for any 
person to buy, weigh or grade grain, seeds or other 
agricultural products without such a license. 

Altogether, the act is of the most drastic kind. The 
inspector is appointed by the Governor alone and the 
consent of the Senate is not necessary. The act, in fact, 
places in the hands of the Governor of the state alone 
the power to regulate and control its whole agricultural 
industry. It was claimed by the friends of the bill that, 
while it was in operation, it worked great good and that 
under it not only was the inspector able to compel a num- 
ber of elevators and buyers to discard false weights and 
measures and to bring about honesty in the grain business 
generally but that the provision in regard to dockage was 



98 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

productive of great benefit. Of this we have no doubt. 
Whether the benefits, however, could ever compensate for 
the manifest autocracy of such a measure is a matter of 
less certainty of determination. 

The act of 19 19 was the successor of the act of 19 17, 
the principal difference being that the latter act conferred 
upon the inspector the additional power to fix prices as 
well as grades. Both acts made it unlawful to buy or sell 
grain or seed which had not been inspected. 

Though attacked by a farmer-elevator company, the 
constitutionality of the act of 19 17 had been sustained by 
the Supreme Court of the State. The opinion, however, 
had suggested that the particular case that was before it 
did not involve an interstate commerce transaction, and 
that as the bill did not attempt to determine the price 
that anyone should pay, the grading of the grain might 
be considered merely in the light of advice to the farmer 
and to the purchaser. It emphasized the fact that no 
person could be compelled to pay the regulation price 
on grain which he thought had been over-graded. The 
new act, however, gave to the inspector the power to 
regulate prices as well as grades. It was soon attacked 
in the United States courts in a case which involved an 
interstate commerce transaction. It was there held un- 
constitutional as an interference with inter-state commerce 
and because the federal government had itself undertaken 
to regulate the matter of grading. It is to be regretted, 
however, that the court did not pass upon the question 
of the right of a state to fix prices in cases where inter- 
state commerce was not involved. 

The absent voters' law permits all persons expecting 
to be absent on election day, and all women living more 
than half a mile from their polling places to vote by mail. 
It makes it possible for a paid organizer, equipped with 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 99 

a notary's commission, to round up whole townships, 
weeks before election. He may first call on each voter 
with an application form, which the voter signs and mails 
to the county auditor. In two or three days the applicant 
receives the blank ballot, and the organizer calls again, 
perhaps this time with a friend, for the law allows the 
voter to have help in marking his ballot. The helper 
must be someone other than the notary, but the two 
callers might easily persuade the voter to call for help, 
as he may be unfamiliar with some of the names and in 
danger of voting wrong. 

When the ballot has been marked and folded, it is put 
in an envelope with the notary's attestation, and mailed 
to the county auditor. The auditor sends it to the 
election judges of the proper precinct, who are to open 
it on election day. 

The voter still is given a chance to change his mind 
and go to the polls on election day. If he gets there be- 
fore the judges have put his ballot in the box, he may 
recall it and vote another one. 

It is easy to see how this act would destroy secrecy 
in voting, a principle conceded to be vital in a democracy. 

It opens the way for an organization with money and 
men to argue voters one by one into voting for its ticket, 
something the corrupt practices law will not allow them 
to do on election day. It practically extends the election 
to a period of thirty days, during which time ballots may 
be marked, sent in, recalled and voted over again; can- 
vassers may harass the voters and the election laws may 
be turned into a farce. 

The public printing law, which required all of the pub- 
lic printing and political and legal advertisements to be 
published in but one paper in each county, has been de- 
fended on the ground of convenience and economy. Since, 



ioo NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

however, the measure was passed in the legislative session 
of January, 1919, and since it provided that until the 
next general election the favored paper should be selected 
by the Industrial Commission, it served as an agency to 
ruin and to suppress, and was no doubt intended to ruin 
and suppress a large number of independent newspapers, 
and to give a complete monopoly to the friends of the 
League during the eighteen months which intervened 
between January, 19 19, and the next general election. 
It is well known that few country newspapers can be 
financed without the aid which is derived from legal and 
political advertising and printing. Even after the election 
of 1920, it would serve to create a newspaper monopoly 
in favor of the dominant political faction. 

The various employers' liability, industrial insurance 
and eight-hour laws were enacted merely for propa- 
ganda in other states, especially the industrial states; they 
have no application in North Dakota. These laws are 
made by their terms expressly to exclude farm labor; yet 
North Dakota is a purely agricultural state. The State 
has no large cities, and practically no manufactures. Its 
population includes probably riot more than 5,000 union 
laborers. It is true that during the harvesting season 
the state contains an army of transient laborers, but they 
are farm laborers, and these acts do not apply to them. 
Even the employees of the railroad companies are not 
protected by the employers' liability act. 

The act however has been made applicable to all other 
classes of employees, even to stenographers and to office 
help who certainly are not engaged in hazardous employ- 
ments. It is therefore able to create a large fund of 
ready money which under the law is required to be de- 
posited in the Bank of North Dakota and may be loaned 
by that bank to practically whomsoever it pleases. The 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 101 

extent to which the creation of this fund has been encour- 
aged is shown by the fact that although those who are 
engaged in industrial employments in North Dakota are 
very few and the act does not cover the railroads or the 
farms, the first year's report which was filed on July i, 
1920, shows receipts of $539,218.16 and disbursements 
of $121,603.09, or a net profit or excess of $417,615.07. 

In the Non-partisan state sheriff act we discover an" 
interesting mediaeval survival. This super-sheriff has an 
interesting parallel in the feudal coroner or crowner of 
the middle ages. The Norman monarchs discovered that 
the Anglo Saxon earls, who in those days supervised the 
criminal administration of the various counties of Eng- 
land, were too subservient to the local interests, so they 
created a royal appointee in each county, the sheriff, in 
their stead. Later they found that even the sheriffs were 
often influenced by the local landed aristocracy, to which 
as a rule they belonged, and that often the king's laws 
and the king's will were not enforced. Though still re- 
taining the sheriff, they then created or resurrected the 
old Anglo Saxon office of coroner or crowner and gave 
to this officer the added powers of a super-sheriff, one of 
which was to watch the sheriffs. 

In the twentieth century in North Dakota the Non- 
partisan hierarchy discovered that often the popularly 
elected sheriffs were not amenable to control, that they 
sometimes interfered with disloyal meetings, that they 
sometimes hesitated in seizing coal mines, that they con- 
sidered themselves responsible to the people who had 
elected them and not to a super-lord. They therefore 
created the office of the state sheriff or super-sheriff, who 
was to be appointed by the governor and to be removable 
at his pleasure. 

This measure was vigorously assailed as a further 



102 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

movement towards an autocracy, and was soon repudiated 
by the people on a general referendum vote. Its defeat 
was perhaps partially due to a controversy over the ap- 
pointment during the administration of Governor John 
Burke of a state prohibition officer, and to the fear of 
the so-called wet element that the power of the sheriff 
would be used to their detriment. It is safe to say, how- 
ever, that the negative vote would not have been so de- 
cisive if it had not been for the growing fear of the 
Townley oligarchy. 

Where, indeed, there is confidence in the appointing 
power, much can be said in favor of the system. It has 
already been inaugurated in South Dakota, and has been 
frequently suggested during the recent crime wave which 
has swept through America. It has even been suggested 
that all police officers should be appointed by the central 
authorities, and much may be said in support of the idea. 
No one indeed can doubt that the remarkable efficiency 
of the English police is due to the fact that they are ap- 
pointed from above rather than from below, and that 
they do not owe their offices to the favor of local politi- 
cians, who in turn are often seeking the favors of the dis- 
orderly and criminal classes. It is also due to the fact 
that the policemen are often appointed from outside dis- 
tricts, and are not subject to the restraint of local interests 
and local friendships. 

In addition to this legislation many radical changes to 
the constitution were attempted, and many were effected. 

The constitution was amended so as to permit the state 
to engage in all kinds of industrial enterprises and, if 
it so desired, to inaugurate an almost universal scheme of 
state-ownership. The instrument was then amended 
so as to permit the loaning of the school funds to 
these state enterprises, many of which could only prove 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 103 

financial failures. Formerly the constitution provided 
that these funds, which were largely the proceeds of the 
magnificent land grants which the United States had given 
to the new state of North Dakota, could be invested only 
in United States bonds, state bonds, and real estate se- 
curity. Now by the amendment the words, "United 
States bonds" were stricken out and the words "state and 
municipal industrial enterprises" were inserted in their 
place; and not only this but the loans could be made up 
to the full value, or supposed full value of these indus- 
tries. Why prohibit loaning on United States bonds, 
unless perhaps the proceeds of these bonds might be used 
to promote patriotism and to finance a patriotic war? 
Why squander and subject to the risk of doubtful invest- 
ments the heritage of the children of the state, unless 
socialism is more important than education and state 
owned enterprises than human characters and human 
lives ? 

Perhaps the most important and most to be deplored 
of all of the amendments was one which provided for the 
amendment of the constitution by the initiative process 
and which made it possible, on obtaining the signature of 
only twenty thousand voters, to initiate an amendment 
120 days before a general election, that is to say in the 
month of July when the farmers would be busy with 
their farming operations, and to have that amendment 
voted upon at the November elections, when, and without 
any further action, the amendment if passed by the votes 
of the people would become effective. This provision, 
however, is in direct accord with the League's whole 
policy which has been to stampede popular thought and 
to push through its program without thought and with- 
out deliberation and by the force of a class appeal and 
prejudice and passion. It must indeed be clear to all that 



io 4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

four months is not a sufficient time for a law-ignorant, 
history-ignorant and often misinformed electorate to 
make radical changes in a constitution and in a system of 
law and of government and of civilization which has 
been the result of the experience of the ages and which 
it has taken centuries to formulate and to create. 

Many other amendments were attempted but failed 
of adoption either on account of the fact that they were 
introduced in the legislatures of 19 15 and 19 17 in which 
the conservatives had a partial control, or because they 
were later defeated when they were referred to the 
people. 

For instance, Article 8 of the Constitution of North 
Dakota provides: 

"A high degree of intelligence, patriotism, integrity 
and morality on the part of every voter in a government 
by the people being necessary in order to secure the con- 
tinuance of that government and the prosperity and hap- 
piness of the people, the legislative assembly shall make 
provision for the establishment and maintenance of a 
system of public schools which shall be open to the chil- 
dren of the state of North Dakota, and free from sec- 
tarian control. This legislative requirement shall be irre- 
vocable without the consent of the United States and the 
people of North Dakota." 

An amendment was proposed to strike from this Ar- 
ticle the words, "A high degree of intelligence, patriotism, 
integrity and morality on the part of every voter in a 
government by the people being necessary in order to 
secure the continuance of that government and the pros- 
perity and happiness of the people." 

Why strike out these to all true Americans sacred and 
self-evident words which were first enshrined in the 
Northwest Ordinance of 1789? There can be but one 



THE LEAGUE'S PROGRAM 105 

answer. We have elsewhere stated that the propaganda 
and legislative policy of the League was from the begin- 
ning dictated by international socialists, the chief of which 
were Charles Edward Russell, Walter Thomas Mills, 
David Coates, and Arthur LeSueur. To the international 
socialist our American morality is abhorent because it 
emphasizes the sacredness of marriage and the value of 
the home, and, where there are homes and legitimate 
children, men and women will always seek to acquire pri- 
vate property and insist on private property rights. The 
socialists are opposed to the word "morality" because, 
as understood by Americans, it includes sexual morality, 
and sexual morality brings with it the home and the home 
instinct and where there is the home there also is "patriot- 
ism." The international socialist does not recognize the 
word "patriotism" and knows no country and no flag. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE LEAGUE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION 

A determined effort has been made by the League from 
its very beginning both to control the use of the school 
funds of the state and to govern the educational policies 
of all of its institutions of learning. The effort was at 
first merely retaliatory and was perhaps in a measure 
justifiable. There can be no doubt of the integrity and 
single-mindedness of the members of the various boards 
of regents whom the League found in office when it came 
into power. There had however been misuses of power 
in the past and there was a fear that the conservatives 
might bring about the removal from the Agricultural 
College of Professor, later United States Senator, E. F. 
Ladd, who had done valiant service in the matter of pure 
food investigation and legislation and who was bitterly 
opposed by many interests, and that they might also 
remove other persons whose activities had also been 
distasteful. Often in the past the old-line politicians 
had attempted, and in some instances succeeded in, elimi- 
nating so-called progressives from the teaching, forces of 
the state's institutions. There can be no doubt that from 
an early time the theory that to the victor belong the 
spoils had often been extended to the educational insti- 
tutions and not only were the contracts for buildings and 
supplies as far as possible given to favored politicians, 
but the institutions were looked upon as political incu- 
bators and every attempt possible was made to see to it 

106, 



THE LEAGUE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION 107 

that the graduates therefrom should not be so influenced 
by their instructors that when they came to the voting 
age they would vote for anyone but the candidates of 
the conservative branch of the Republican party or at any 
rate that they should be "safely and sanely educated." 

The desire to control the school boards, for protective 
and retaliatory purposes, however, soon became a desire 
to control them for purposes of non-partisan and socialist 
propaganda and in order that the educational funds of the 
state might be at the complete disposal of the new 
hierarchy. There was no desire, perhaps, to confiscate 
or to steal, but there was a desire to obtain the invest- 
ment of these funds in the bonds and securities of the 
various public and quasi-public enterprises which the 
League had promoted and to make of them a fund which 
could at all times be drawn upon for temporary loans. 
There was a desire also to control the social and economic 
instruction in the public schools and institutions of higher 
learning so that the cause of state socialism might be 
favored and the beneficence of the Non-partisan move- 
ment might be made clear to the youth of the state. This 
latter desire was openly expressed by the Rev. George 
Totten who was one of Governor Frazier's new ap- 
pointees, and the chairman of the State Educational Com- 
mission. It was carried into a concrete form in various 
sets of examination questions which were prepared for 
the would-be teachers of the state by the Non-partisan 
state superintendent of public instruction N. C. Mac- 
Donald which required the candidates to "define the Non- 
partisan league" and to state u the good things" which 
Governor Frazier and the Non-partisan attorney general 
had done for the electorate. 

In order that these things might be accomplished it 
was necessary to control both the governing boards of 



1 08 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

the various state institutions and the office of State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. The latter office was 
particularly important as its incumbent not only super- 
vised and controlled the instruction in the common schools 
but she was ex-officio a member of the Board of Univer- 
sity and School Lands which was entrusted with the su- 
pervision and investment of the schools lands and school 
funds of the state and, above all, of the federal school 
land grant. 

In the election of 19 17 Miss Minnie E. Nielson was 
the only one of the candidates opposed to the League, 
who was successful at the polls ; she defeated N. C. Mac- 
Donald for the office of State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. In spite of an unlawful raid on the State 
Board of Regents, to which we shall afterwards refer, 
one conservative or old-line member still held a seat on 
the Board of Regents. The next legislature therefore 
abolished the State Board of Regents, of which the State 
Superintendent was ex-officio a member, and which had 
control of the state's higher institutions of learning, and 
the Board of Control which had charge of the penal and 
charitable institutions of the state, and created a new 
Board of Administration in which was vested prac- 
tically all of the powers formerly exercised both by the 
two boards which we have mentioned and by the State 
Superintendent. 

Not only did this measure deprive Miss Nielson of 
practically all of her powers and prerogatives but it 
placed in the hands of an appointee of the Governor the 
control of the purchase and distribution of the books of 
the traveling libraries of the state. Since at all times 
the Governor had been merely a puppet, it made it pos- 
sible for the socialist hierarchy to control not merely the 
instruction and the teachers to be employed in the various 



THE LEAGUE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION 109 

schools of the state but the propaganda of the traveling 
libraries also. It made it possible everywhere to empha- 
size the socialistic viewpoint and everywhere to teach the 
efficacy of Townleyism. It also placed the school funds 
of the state in the hands of its new master. 

At the head of the new Board of Administration was 
George Totten. Totten had for a long time been an 
ardent socialist. He had left the Congregational minis- 
try some years before, we believe, on account of his radi- 
cal views. He had perhaps not been fairly treated in 
local politics in Bowman county, where he had preempted 
land and for some time had edited a local newspaper. 
He was now an embittered man. He had constantly as- 
serted that the individualist theory had been taught too 
much in our schools and that social dependence and so- 
cial right had not been sufficiently emphasized. 

Through Totten's influence Dr. Charles E. Stangeland 
was placed at the head of the Free Library Bureau. Dr. 
Stangeland's assistant was a Miss Anna Peterson. Both 
were socialists. Dr. Stangeland at one time had been a 
subordinate in the American embassy to Great Britain, 
but for some reason or other he had chosen to resign. 
During the war he had been indicted for an alleged viola- 
tion of the Trading with the Enemy Act, though after 
the armistice the prosecution was dropped. 

Under the management of Dr. Stangeland a large 
number of socialist and radical books were purchased 
for the library. There were also in the library, and 
probably purchased for reference use by social investi- 
gators, various books by Ellen Key and among them 
Love and Marriage and Love and Ethics which 
openly teach the doctrine of free love. 1 The charge 

1 The nature of the works of Ellen Key, and their unfitness for 
distribution among the youth of a state through the agency of a circu- 



no NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

was made and was quite conclusively proved that an at- 
tempt was on foot to circulate these books in the travel- 

lating library is apparent from the following quotations from "Love 
and Marriage" and "Love and Ethics." 

"In 'Love and Marriage' I pointed out that those who insist upon 
monogamy (which is one wife for each husband and one husband 
for each wife) that is, a life-long love relation, as the only moral 
relationship between the sexes disregard the inevitable consequence of 
such an ethical standard, NAMELY, THE WASTE OF A LARGE 
AMOUNT OF SPLENDID LIFE ENERGY WHICH IF UTILIZED 
WOULD PRODUCE FINE OFFSPRING AND SO AID IN THE 
IMPROVEMENT OF THE RACE." 

"One would suppose that those who attack marriage were trying to 
destroy a beautiful idyl. As a matter of fact, the horrors of the present 
system are such that what we should do is compare them with the 
possible dangers of a new system and see which are to be dreaded 
the more. 

"Are modern marriages good enough for the need of society?" 

"How can we find a more efficient ethical code than the present one 
for improving the species?" 

"Such high-strung idealism would produce the same results as the 
convents in the middle ages, and under present social conditions 
this standard of morality would hinder the improvement of the species, 
although the trend of evolution is unmistakably toward real unity of love 
as the final goal, and although UNITY OF THE SOUL AND THE 
SENSES CAN ALREADY BE LAID DOWN AS THE CONDITION 
OF TRUE CHASTITY IN THE UNION OF THE SEXES IN OR 
OUT OF MARRIAGE." 

"From the point of view of the good of the species, THE LEGAL AND 
ECCLESIASTICAL FORM OF MORALITY CANNOT HOLD ITS 
GROUND AGAINST THE MOST HIGHLY DEVELOPED SEX 
CONSCIOUSNESS OF TO-DAY AND ITS ETHICS." 

"To think of insisting upon a great lifelong love as the sole moral 
standard for this varied life!" 

"He who so insists has never allowed his thoughts to stray beyond 
the narrow circle prescribed by his like-minded neighbors!" 

"A nation in which marriages are contracted only from deep per- 
sonal love is at a great disadvantage as against other nations and must 
perish. In Europe monogamy is established as the absolute moral 
law. But among such hardy nations as the modern Japanese and the 
ancient Hebrews we find concubinage an institution sanctioned by law 
and custom." 

THE MODERN SEX PROBLEM 

"For this and many other reasons I maintained in 'Love and Marriage' 
that the modern sex problem consists in finding the proper equilibrium 
between, on the one hand, the requirements for the improvement of the 
species, and, on the other hand, the increased demands of the indi- 
vidual to be happy in love; whereas formerly the problem was only 
between society's demands for fixed marriage forms and the individual's 
demands to satisfy his sex life in any form. The sex ethics that pro- 
ceeds from this new equilibrium will be the only true ethics. 



THE LEAGUE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION 1 1 1 

ing libraries of the state. And this attempt being dis- 
covered, the conservative members of the legislature 
bitterly opposed and criticised it. The incident perhaps 
was exaggerated. Of course it would be unfair to charge 
the attempt to all of the leaders of the League or to all 
of the state officials. Many of the League's members 
protested against it. Though perhaps the rank and file 
might have approved the circulation of the strictly eco- 
nomic works, the great majority would certainly not have 
favored the circulation of those which dealt with the do- 
mestic relations. The fact however, that a man of the 
character of Dr. Stangeland was placed at the head of 
the Free Library Bureau and that a pronounced socialist 
like Totten was made the chairman of the Board of Ad- 
ministration with an autocratic control over the educa- 
tional policies of the State, is in itself conclusive evidence 
that in North Dakota an agrarian movement has been 
captured by a socialist hierarchy and, to quote the lan- 
guage of Miss Minnie Nielson, the Non-partisan League 

"All I plead for was greater freedom in love, that we might have 
the opportunity of observing its effect. 

"OF ALL SOCIAL CONCESSIONS TO BE DEMANDED THE 
MOST ESSENTIAL IS THAT THE STANDARD BY WHICH THE 
MORALITY OF PARENTHOOD IS MEASURED SHOULD BE NOT 
THE MARRIAGE RITE BY THE WILL OF TWO HUMAN BEINGS 
TO ASSURE THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR CHILDREN ; NOT 
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE CHILDREN, BUT THE KIND OF 
CHILDREN THEY ARE. 

"The second social concession to be insisted upon is that the DIS- 
SOLUTION OF MARRIAGE SHOULD BE MADE DEPENDENT 
UPON THE WILL OF ONE OF THE MARRIED PAIR, and that the 
man and woman should have equal marital rights. 

"The forces of the spiritual life that now radiate in two different 
directions would be focused were society to protect all children alike, 
BUT ALLOW INDIVIDUALS TO PROTECT THEIR LOVE. 

"The feeling of responsibility for the child's original character IS 
WEAKENED BY THE CURRENT CONCEPTION OF LEGITI- 
MACY. I 

"The fact that in some FREE UNIONS also love dies, proves nothing 
against this POSSIBILITY OF A FINER LOVE THROUGH FREE 
DIVORCE." 



ii2 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

is in North Dakota at any rate "merely the socialist party 
which is masquerading under the name of a farmers' 
movement." 

There can be no doubt, that though the large majority 
of the members of the Non-partisan League perhaps are 
economically sound and are certainly morally pure and are 
certainly patriotic, they have allowed their organiza- 
tion to become the tool of a handful of political and social 
radicals to whom nothing that now is is sacred or worthy 
to be preserved, and whose ultimate aim is the destruc- 
tion of all that can make our civilization endure. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE BOARD OF REGENTS CASE AND THE STATE UNIVERSITY 

Prior to this time, and before the creation of the new 
Board of Administration, there had been a successful at- 
tempt to control the old Board of Regents. In this move- 
ment the courts were called upon to lend their aid, and 
perhaps of all American judicial travesties, the travesty 
of the so-called North Dakota Board of Regents case is 
the most pathetic. 

In most instances the Non-partisan faction had been 
successful in the elections of 19 14, yet when the legis- 
lature convened in the January following it was discovered 
that the hold-over senators of the opposition were still 
able to control the upper house. It was therefore difficult 
for the Governor to secure the approval of all of his 
nominees and especially for three positions on the State 
Board of Regents which would become vacant the fol- 
lowing July. The majority of the Senate desired the 
reappointment of the men whose terms of office were to 
expire, but it is believed they would have consented to 
reasonable concessions. The Non-partisan management, 
however, was determined to have the Governor's candi- 
dates seated, and a deadlock ensued. The terms of office 
of the members of the Board of Regents expired, ac- 
cording to the statute creating the board, in the month 
of July of legislative years. The statute provided that the 
Governor should nominate the new members and appoint 
them by and with the consent of a majority of the Senate. 

113 



ii 4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

In this instance, however, the Senate refused to confirm 
the appointment of the Governor's first three nominees. 
The Governor then, instead of submitting new names to 
the Senate, refused to take any further action until the 
first of July, after the legislature had adjourned. He 
then declared the offices vacant, and proceeded to make 
his own appointments without so much as consulting the 
lawmakers. Clearly these appointments, were made con- 
trary to the express terms of the statute, yet the Non- 
partisan members of the Supreme Court held them to be 
perfectly valid, though against the vigorous protest of the 
two holdover judges. The majority of the court, in 
effect, decided that when the law in express terms pro- 
vided that the members of the board should be nomi- 
nated by the Governor and should be appointed by and 
with the consent of the majority of the Senate, it meant 
and intended that the Governor could, if he saw fit, make 
no nominations but wait until the legislature had ad- 
journed and when the terms of office came to an end de- 
clare the offices vacant and appoint, himself, the new 
members and that by violating the terms of the statute 
he could create vacancies and then fill them by the exer- 
cise of his arbitrary power. Manifestly what he could 
do in the case of the members of the Board of 
Regents he could by analogy do in the case of all the 
other important boards of the state, as either the statutes 
or the constitution provided that the consent of the 
senate should be necessary to a valid appointment. The 
action and the decision of the court, therefore, made 
of the Governor an autocrat and an Oliver Cromwell. 
Oliver Cromwell, like Governor Frazier, had long 
been an advocate of parliamentary government and had 
countenanced the execution of a king because he had 
dared to question the parliamentary prerogatives. When, 



THE BOARD OF REGENTS CASE 115 

however, he himself was in power and the members of 
a parliament did not do as he commanded, he marched 
his troopers into Westminster Hall and turned them out. 
This was the exact situation in North Dakota and the 
tragedy in the whole matter is not that a law-ignorant 
governor so acted, but that a supposedly law-learned su- 
preme court justified the action. But as we have before 
said the Non-partisan theory is that a judge is a repre- 
sentative merely, and representative must perforce bow 
to the temporary political majority. 

And neither the new Board of Regents nor its successor 
the Board of Administration were slow to exercise their 
powers. They soon forced the resignation of the heads 
of all of the higher institutions of learning and penal 
institutions of the state with the exception of the State 
Agricultural College and the State University. The head 
of the Agricultural College was Professor, now United 
States Senator, E. F. Ladd and, as he was an ardent 
Non-partisan, his removal was unnecessary. As far as 
the State University was concerned a removal was at- 
tempted and would have been successful but for a gen- 
eral protest on the part of the alumni and a threatened 
walk-out on the part of the students, 1 Dr. Thomas F. 

1 The following letter of protest is but one of many which were writ- 
ten to their parents by the students of the University: 

"If you want to have a state university for the younger children to 
go to when they get out of high school, I advise you to work to get 
Totten and Muir off the board of administration. 

"They call President Kane 'mentally unsound and morally unfit' 
to be President of the University. You have heard him speak. I 
leave it to you to judge if he is mentally unsound and you know Totten 
and Muir and I will leave it to you to judge if a man who backed 
Stangeland in the public library deal, can judge who is 'morally unfit.' 

"They have a reason to be down on President Kane. Didn't he 
refuse to ratify the appointment of N. C. MacDonald for head of 
the extension division ! Didn't he remove extension lecturer George 
Wilson from the payroll because he was a doddering half-baked so- 
cialist? Hadn't he bucked against Gillette and Libby and Willis, 
Townley's best friends here on the faculty? He has tried to keep the 



n6 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Kane, the president of the institution, was himself a Non- 
partisan appointee and had no doubt satisfactorily an- 
swered a question which was presented to all candidates, 
as to his attitude toward the League. An attempt, how- 
ever, was later made to control his appointments and 
he incurred the hostility of the leaders by removing a 
socialist from the head of the Extension Department of 
the University and refusing to appoint in his place the 
former superintendent of public instruction N. C. Mac- 
Donald after the defeat of the latter by Miss Minnie 
E. Nielson. The League was especially anxious for this 
appointment as it had become firmly convinced that the 
Extension Department of the University could be made 
an effective avenue for the spread of the propaganda 
either of Americanism or socialism and unrest, and this 
just as its head might dictate. They desired the propa- 
ganda of the University to be of the latter nature. They 
realized that the influence of the Extension Department 
could be made second alone to that of the free traveling 
libraries. The latter they already controlled. The de- 
sire for the control of the former was the reason for the 
attack on President Kane. 

school out of politics. These few things alone are enough to cause 
him to be hanged, drawn and quartered by that bunch of character 
assassins. They ask him to resign and he has without a doubt done 
more for this school in a year and a half than any other President 
we ever had could do in five years. 

"The charges Totten and Muir present come from the faculty — 
anonymous. What kind of a bunch is it that will make anonymous 
charges, afraid to show their faces. I know a few like them — Willis, 
Gillette, etc. When President Kane goes goodness knows who will 
come, maybe Townley himself would make a good president. If they 
do get Kane out, you can back on this — you'll have a school here that 
will be run without opposition from Totten and Muir and in that you 
will have a school that no self-respecting person would send his child 
to. You can tell people that discuss the matter with you that ninety- 
nine out of a hundred of the students here are with President Kane." 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE SCHOOL FUNDS 

One of the things the conservatives and all real friends 
of American democracy most fear, in connection with 
political experiments, is that the magnificent school land 
grants of the Western states may be dissipated. If these 
lands and the funds derived from them can be saved as 
a guarantee of the permanence of popular education and 
of the Americanism of the West, and as a heritage not 
only to the children of the citizens of the present but 
to those of the generations yet unborn, many will be con- 
tent. They will be satisfied to allow experiments to be 
tried, and if they fail, for the dancer to pay the fiddler 
in the shape of an increased present taxation and a pres- 
ent industrial ruin. 

The danger to these grants and to these funds lies in 
the temptation to invest recklessly in the securities of 
state and municipally owned industries, many of which 
must necessarily fail; to divert the moneys from their 
proper funds in order that they may be loaned to such 
enterprises and swell the general balance of the state 
which will be constantly drawn upon, and perhaps, and in 
order that these funds may be replenished, to sell the 
lands themselves at lower figures than would otherwise 
have been obtained. 

Whether these funds have been seriously tampered 
with so far in North Dakota it is now impossible to 
say, as the State Bank of North Dakota in which they 

117 



n 8 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

are deposited, has steadily refused to allow its books to 
be examined by the State Auditor. The danger, however, 
is very apparent. It can, however, we believe, be met 
and overcome by a rigid insistence, by those who are 
authorized to insist, upon the simple law of contracts 
and of trusts. 

The congressional act of February twenty-second, 
1889, which authorized the creation of the States of 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washing- 
ton, among other things provided: 

"Sec. 10. That upon the admission of each of said 
States (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and 
Washington) into the Union sections numbered sixteen 
and thirty-six in every township of said proposed States 
. . . are hereby granted to the said States for the sup- 
port of common schools . . ." 

"Sec. 11. That all lands herein granted for educa- 
tional purposes shall be disposed of only at public sale, 
and at a price not less than ten dollars per acre, the pro- 
ceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest 
of which only shall be expended in the support of said 
schools . . ." 

"Sec. 14. That the lands granted to the Territories of 
Dakota and Montana by the act of February eighteenth, 
eighteen hundred and eighty-one, entitled 'An act to grant 
lands to Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Idaho, and Wyo- 
ming for university purposes,' are hereby vested in the 
States of South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana re- 
spectively, if such states are admitted into the Union as 
provided in this act, to the extent of the full quantity of 
seventy-two sections to each of said states . . . shall 
be so amended as to provide that none of said lands 
shall be sold for less than $10 per acre, and the proceeds 
shall constitute a permanent fund to be safely invested 



THE SCHOOL FUNDS 119 

and held by said states severally, and the income thereof 
to be used exclusively for university purposes and such 
quantity of the lands authorized by the fourth section of 
the Act of July 17, 1854, to be reserved for university 
purposes in the Territory of Washington, as together 
with the lands confirmed to the vendees of the territory 
by the act of March 14, 1864, will make the full quantity 
of seventy-two entire sections are hereby granted in like 
manner to the State of Washington for the purposes of 
a university in said state. None of the lands granted in 
this section shall be sold at less than $10 per acre . . . 

"See. 16. That 90,000 acres of land, to be selected 
and located as provided in section 10, of this act are 
hereby granted to each of said states, except to the State 
of South Dakota, to which 120,000 acres are granted for 
the use and support of agricultural colleges in said states, 
as provided in the acts of congress making donations for 
such purposes. 

"Sec. 17. That in lieu of the grants of land for the 
purposes of internal improvements made to new states by 
the eighth section of the act of September 4, 1841, . . . 
the following grants of land are hereby made, to wit: 

"To the State of South Dakota: For the school 
of mines, 40,000 acres; for the reform school, 40,000 
acres; for the deaf and dumb asylum, 40,000 acres; for 
the agricultural college, 40,000 acres; for the university, 
40,000 acres; for state normal schools, 80,000 acres; for 
public buildings at the capital of said state 50,000 acres, 
and for such other educational and charitable purposes as 
the legislature of said state may determine, 170,000 
acres; in all, 500,000 acres. 

"To the State of North Dakota a like quantity of land 
as in this section granted to the State of South Dakota, 



120 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

and to be for like purposes, and in like proportion as far 
as practicable. 

"To the State of Montana: For the establishment 
and maintenance of a school of mines 1,000,000 acres; 
for state normal schools 100,000 acres; for agricultural 
colleges in addition to the grant hereinbefore made for 
that purpose 50,000 acres; for the establishment of a 
state reform school 50,000 acres; for public buildings at 
the capital of the state in addition to the grant herein- 
before made for that purpose 150,000 acres. 

"To the State of Washington: For the establishment 
and maintenance of a scientific school 100,000 acres; for 
state normal schools 100,000 acres; for public buildings 
at the state capital in addition to the grant hereinbefore 
made for that purpose, 1,000,000 acres; for state chari- 
table, educational, penal and reformatory institutions 
200,000 acres." 

And similar grants under similar limitations have 
been made by other and more recent acts. 

An example of the acceptance by the several states is 
furnished by the constitution which was adopted by the 
state of North Dakota as a prerequisite to its admission 
into the Union, and which among other things provides : 

u Sec. 153, Art. 9. All proceeds of the public lands 
that have heretofore been, or may hereafter be granted 
by the United States for the support of the common 
schools in this state ; all such per centum as may be granted 
by the United States on the sale of public lands . . . 
shall be and remain a perpetual fund for the maintenance 
of the common schools of the state. It shall be deemed 
a trust fund, the principal of which shall forever remain 
inviolate and may be increased but never diminished. The 
state shall make good all losses thereof." 

"Sec. 159. All land, money or other property donated, 



THE SCHOOL FUNDS 121 

granted or received from the United States or any other 
source for a university, school of mines, reform school, 
agricultural college, deaf and dumb asylum, normal 
school or other educational or charitable institution or 
purpose, and the proceeds of all such lands and other 
property so received from any source, shall be and remain 
perpetual funds, the interest and income of which together 
with the rents of all such land as may remain unsold shall 
be inviolably appropriated and applied to the specific ob- 
jects of the original grants or gifts. The principal of 
every such fund may be increased, but shall never be di- 
minished, and the interest and income only shall be used. 
Every such fund shall be deemed a trust fund held by 
the state, and the state shall make good all losses 
thereof." 

"Sec. 162. The moneys of the permanent school fund 
and other educational funds shall be invested only in 
bonds of school corporations within the state, bonds of 
the United States, bonds of the State of North Dakota 
or in first mortgages on farm lands in the state, not ex- 
ceeding in amount one-third of the actual value of any 
subdivision on which the same may be loaned, such value 
to be determined by the board of appraisers of school 
lands." 

"Sec. 165. The Legislative Assembly shall pass suit- 
able laws for the safe keeping, transfer and disbursement 
of the state school funds; and shall require all officers 
charged with the same or the safe keeping thereof to 
give ample bonds for all moneys and funds received by 
them, and if any of said officers shall convert to his own 
use in any manner or form, or shall loan, with or without 
interest, or shall deposit in his own name, or otherwise 
than in the name of the state of North Dakota or shall 
deposit in any banks or with any person or persons, or 



122 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

exchange for other funds or property any portion of the 
school funds aforesaid or purposely allow any portion of 
the same to remain in his own hands uninvested except in 
the manner prescribed by law, every such act shall con- 
stitute an embezzlement of so much of the aforesaid 
school funds as shall be thus taken or loaned, or de- 
posited, or exchanged, or withheld, and shall be a felony ; 
and any failure to pay over, produce or account for, the 
state school funds or any part of the same entrusted to 
any such officer, as by law required or demanded, shall 
be held and be taken to be prima facie evidence of such 
embezzlement." 

Under the congressional acts and the state constitu- 
tional provisions quoted above, not only were valid con- 
tracts entered into but the several states were created 
trustees of the lands involved as well as of the proceeds 
of such as they should thereafter sell. There can also, 
we believe, be no question that a state may be a trustee 
and that the statement that u the crown or a state cannot 
be a trustee means no more than that the cestui cannot 
compel performance of the trust by bill in equity . . . 
The cestui' s proper course is to sue by petition — in Eng- 
land, to the Crown; in this country, to Congress or the 
Legislature. " 

Though a state may not be sued by its own subjects 
or by its own agencies, it is also clear that an American 
state may be sued by its sovereign, the United States; 
that if it assumes the relationship of a trustee it assumes 
the liabilities of the trust, and that it and its officers can 
be held responsible in the federal courts. 

The United States, then, has created the states of the 
West trustees of what may be termed charitable trusts, 
for though the property conveyed and the object of the 
grants is certain, the beneficiaries are not only the chil- 



THE SCHOOL FUNDS 123 

dren of the present generation but the children of the 
generations yet unborn, and the public schools, universi- 
ties, and other schools were not only not in existence and 
were undefined at the time of the grant, but in a number 
of the states, noticeably North Dakota, have never at any 
time had any corporate entity and their trustees or re- 
gents have acted merely as agents of the state. 

In spite of these facts, however, and in spite of the 
clear expression of the terms and the conditions of the 
trust, both in the act of Congress and in the provisions 
of the constitution under which the grant was accepted 
and the State admitted into the Union, there can be no 
question that in the State of North Dakota there is to- 
day a determined effort and purpose to violate this trust 
relationship, and that this effort, if successful there, will 
be repeated in other land-grant states. It is an effort 
not entirely to repudiate the trust, but to use the funds 
for purposes which are not authorized and to further the 
cause of state socialism by loaning and investing the funds 
in a manner which can never be sanctioned and which 
would not be tolerated in the case of a personal trustee 
even under the so-called liberal Massachusetts rule of 
investment. 

This purpose of the Non-partisan League has not as 
yet been fully carried out and has in a measure been 
checked, at first by the determined efforts of a few hold- 
over senators in the legislature of 19 17 and later by a 
few conservatives in the ranks of the reformers. Already, 
however, the former state debt limit of two million dol- 
lars has been swept away and the state is authorized to 
issue bonds to the extent of seventeen millions of dol- 
lars upon the security of "the real and personal property 
of state-owned utilities, enterprises or industries, in 
amounts not exceeding its value," and the intention is quite 



i2 4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

clear that the school funds shall be used in the purchase 
of these bonds. Already, too, authority has been given 
for the entry of the state into all kinds of commercial 
enterprises and insurance projects, and above all, a state- 
owned bank has been created in which all state moneys 
are required to be deposited, including the school funds 
while awaiting permanent investment, which may loan its 
deposits to practically whomsoever it pleases, and which 
a recent lawsuit disclosed had deposits in the Scandina- 
vian-American Bank of Fargo, a private state bank, a 
large portion of whose assets were post-dated farmers' 
checks. 

These measures, however, were mere compromises. 
The real program was outlined in what is known as House 
Bill 44 of the Legislative Session of 19 17, which submit- 
ted an entirely new state constitution. This bill was 
vigorously championed by the Governor, passed the lower 
house by a large vote, and was defeated in the Senate 
only by the vote of eight hold-over senators. 

This proposed constitution authorized both the state 
and the municipalities to engage in any public industrial 
enterprises that they pleased, entirely removed the state 
debt limit as to state bonds which were issued on the 
strength of these industries, and, what is still more sig- 
nificant, amended Section 162 of the original constitution 
so as no longer to authorize the investment of the school 
funds in United States bonds, but in state bonds and on 
real estate security only. It also repealed or omitted 
Section 165 of the original constitution which guaranteed 
the proper investment of and made a diversion of the 
funds a criminal offense. It thus paved the way for the 
practice of depositing large sums of the money in the 
state bank or its branches to be by it loaned as it saw fit 
and, as far as the trust fund was concerned, secured only 



THE SCHOOL FUNDS 125 

by the responsibility of the state bank. The amend- 
ments, in short, made it possible for the whole of the 
school funds to be loaned or kept by the state for the fur- 
therance not of its political and governmental, but its 
private industrial purposes. 

It is quite apparent that this program involves a se- 
rious breach of the trust relationship. The original con- 
gressional grant provided that the proceeds of the sale 
of the school lands should be kept as a permanent fund 
and should be safely invested, and it is quite clear that 
such directions to an ordinary trustee would in no case be 
understood to grant the power to loan to himself. It is 
true that the constitution which was adopted by the new 
state and which was accepted by the federal Congress 
provided that such money could be invested "in bonds of 
school corporations, within the state, bonds of the United 
States, bonds of the State of North Dakota, or in first 
mortgages on farm lands," and that the acceptance of this 
constitution was an acceptance of the method of invest- 
ment. There was in the same constitution, however, a 
state debt limit of two million dollars, and it is apparent 
that the bonds contemplated were the bonds which are 
usually issued by states, in the performance of their educa- 
tional, charitable, and governmental functions, and that 
it was never contemplated that the state, any more than 
other trustee, should invest the whole fund in its own se- 
curities or loan the whole amount to itself, and especially 
after it had raised the debt limit and entered into general 
business and loaned its credit to all kinds of industrial 
enterprises. Much less was it contemplated that the real 
security should not be the obligation of the state, but the 
property of industrial institutions, nine out of ten of 
which must fail for the simple reason that politics and 
business are poor bedfellows and that the success of every 



126 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

industrial undertaking depends upon business manage- 
ment. When, too, United States government bonds and 
real estate mortgages and school bonds were all included, 
they were included for a purpose. It was never intended 
that the state should use the money to set itself up in 
business or to loan all the money to itself. 

It was never intended that the state should create a 
state bank, in which all the state moneys should be re- 
quired to be deposited, including the school funds while 
waiting permanent investment, and that these funds 
should be placed in such a position that they could be 
loaned out on short loans to needy state industries, nor 
that a practice, recently held illegal by the Attorney Gen- 
eral but now sought to be legalized by statute, of turning 
all the taxes and funds into a general fund for general 
expenses, and the keeping of the accounts separate as a 
matter of bookkeeping merely, should jeopardize any of 
the funds, or prevent the educational or other institutions 
from having them always kept subject to their drafts. 

"Trustees cannot use trust moneys in their business, 
nor embark it in any trade or speculation; nor can they 
disguise the employment of the money in their business, 
under the pretense of a loan to one of themselves, nor 
to a partnership of which they are members." A trustee, 
even though he be a sovereign state, cannot loan to him- 
self or personally profit by the funds that he holds. 

It is perfectly clear that if any of these things are 
attempted the United States may interfere in the premises 
and that it will not be compelled to wait until the fund 
is wasted or dissipated and then sue an already bankrupt 
state for damages. Certainly the state could be en- 
joined from dissipating the property. Certainly even a 
sovereign state which violates its trust may be removed 
as a trustee or, if the matter be merely considered con- 



THE SCHOOL FUNDS 127 

tractural, the contract may be held broken and a return 
of the lands and moneys may be demanded. 

In such a case the proper person to act must necessarily 
be the Attorney-General of the United States, and this 
not merely because the United States has made a contract 
with the several states which it is entitled to enforce, 
but because it is a case where the settlor or creator of 
the trust has a definite interest and perhaps alone can 
protect the parties interested. 

The cestuis que trust or beneficiaries even if they were 
ascertained and the trust were not charitable, could hardly 
of themselves obtain adequate relief. Being subjects, they 
could not sue the trustee in its own courts and would be 
equally precluded by the eleventh amendment from suing 
in the federal tribunals. No provision seems be made 
for one who seeks to sue not as a citizen of any one state 
but as a citizen of the United States itself. 

If an action were brought by the attorney general as 
a representative of the cestuis que trust the same difficulty 
would be experienced. 

However, there can be no question, that the settlor 
itself may enforce the contract and the trust obligations, 
The trust was not for the benefit of the state alone or for 
that of its children as state-citizens, but for the benefit 
of the United States itself and of its own future citizens. 

The foundation for the public land grants was laid in 
the provision of the Northwest Ordinance that "Religion, 
morality, and knowledge being necessary to good govern- 
ment, and the happiness of mankind, schools and the 
means of education shall forever be encouraged," and 
though North Dakota is not a part of that territory and 
its reformers have omitted the words which have been 
quoted from their proposed constitution, it is none the 



128 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

less clear that the policy of that ordinance was the cause 
of the state's enrichment. The West was opened for 
settlement and the school land grants made, not for the 
benefit of the states, which for the most part were then 
not in existence, but that in the organization of the ter- 
ritories and the carving them into states, the nation might 
be strengthened and its future be secured. The children 
to be educated were the children of the nation itself. 

It is also well settled that: "If, the charity is estab- 
lished and is in process of administration, there is any 
abuse of the trust or misemployment of the funds, and 
there are no individuals having the right to come into 
court and maintain a bill, the attorney-general, represent- 
ing the sovereign power and the general public, may bring 
the subject before the court, by bill or information and 
obtain perfect redress for all abuses," and it is clear 
that the attorney-general in the case before us is the At- 
torney-General of the United States and the court the 
Supreme Court of the nation. 

If the socialistic fervor of the western states is to con- 
tinue, a close scrutiny of the use and method of invest- 
ment of the school funds would seem to be very neces- 
sary, and no political or other reasons should prevent the 
national government from asserting its rights and pre- 
serving intact to the children of the future the magnificent 
heritage that is theirs. 

If the fact had been generally recognized that these 
grants were trusts for a definite purpose and not gifts to 
the several states for their own peculiar benefit, much of 
the reckless mismanagement and prodigal waste of the 
past would have been prevented, and states like Wiscon- 
sin would to-day possess and enjoy the immense tracts of 
valuable land which were sold, often at prices as low 



THE SCHOOL FUNDS 129 

as one dollar and fifty cents an acre, that real estate deal- 
ers might profit and the political speculator might thrive. 
Perhaps even now sovereign states may be held liable for 
their mismanagement as trustees. 1 

*It is estimated that the value of the school land grant of North 
Dakota exceeds the amount of $45,000,000. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE SEIZURE OF THE COAL MINES 

No better illustration of the North Dakota theory of 
direct action and of government by force, rather than by 
law, can be given than that afforded by the coal strike of 
1919. 

In it we find a deliberate attempt by the socialist lead- 
ers to sacrifice the farmer himself, and an absolute sur- 
render to the vote of the mines. 

Three distinct elements in the Non-partisan party of 
North Dakota, and three distinct motives have been in 
evidence from the beginning. There was the rank and 
file of the farmers who were interested in the movement 
only as an agrarian movement, in the doctrine of "North 
Dakota for the farmers of North Dakota," and in con- 
trolling the grain and stock markets. 

There was the group of socialist leaders who desired 
to push forward the socialist program, to socialize as 
many industries and occupations as possible, and who saw 
in the war, with the autocratic measures of government 
which the war made necessary, a present opportunity to 
do so. 

There were the politicians who desired to build up a na- 
tional party, and who realized that in order to make that 
party popular in the non-agricultural and mining and man- 
ufacturing states and centers, it was necessary to palliate 
the labor element, and ostensibly, at any rate, to adopt 
a program in North Dakota that could be adapted to 

130 



THE SEIZURE OF THE COAL MINES 131 

these states, and which would win the support of organ- 
ized labor. 

Some months before and during the war, the so-called 
State Council of Defense had attempted to seize the 
vacant, though privately-owned lands, and to farm them 
by direct state action. The attempt, however, was half- 
hearted, for the reason that there were no appropriations 
with which to buy the seed and machinery necessary for 
the farming project. Though the Council of Defense 
threatened to charge these items against the owners of 
the land, the seed men and the machinery dealers refused 
to extend credit. The national coal strike of November, 
19 19, however, presented an opportunity which the 
League was not slow to utilize. 

The same problem was presented in both Kansas and 
North Dakota. The method of solution, however, was 
entirely different. The one was legal, and the other il- 
legal. The situation in Kansas was forced upon the 
state by the action of the' miners and the mine operators; 
that of North Dakota was deliberately created. 

Kansas had an abundance of coal within her own bor- 
ders, but in the dead of winter was threatened with an ab- 
solute cessation of production, and a controversy between 
some 13,000 coal miners and a hundred or more coal 
operators was threatening untold misery to hundreds of 
thousands of people. 

In North Dakota there were some six hundred and 
fifty thousand people, some two thousand miners, one or 
two large mines and perhaps ninety smaller concerns, and 
though the population was smaller it was perhaps, even 
more than in the State of Kansas, dependent upon the 
local supply of coal. 

In Kansas there was an actual controversy between the 
miners and the operators at the time that the state au- 



132 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

thorities sought to interfere. In North Dakota there 
was no controversy except that stimulated and created 
by the League's governor in order that the state might 
interfere, and in order that the first movement towards 
the socialist program of the seizure of the mines might 
be inaugurated. 

In Kansas, a controversy having arisen, and the fuel 
supply of the state being actually threatened, something 
had to be done. This something, however, was done 
legally by the ordinary processes of the courts and with 
a full opportunity for all parties to be heard, and was 
supplemented by legislative action. Bills were filed in 
the courts by the Attorney-General setting forth the facts 
of the situation, the needs of the public, and the facts that 
the mines were, to a certain extent, affected by public in- 
terests. Receivers were appointed with the power to 
operate the mines and regulate the hours of labor, the 
wages, and other matters in controversy until such time 
as the parties might agree or the legislature might take 
action. All this was done in a legal manner, and all was 
subject to court review. When the legislature met, it 
legalized collective bargaining, it made it unlawful to 
suspend or to interfere with the production or transpor- 
tation of the necessaries of life, and in case of necessity, 
gave to the state itself the power to operate the mines, 
and justified the action taken, which we believe had been 
legally taken before the passage of the statute. Later, 
by legislative action, in a bill which was supported by both 
the labor and the farmer elements, an industrial court 
was created. 

In North Dakota, on the other hand, no court pro- 
ceedings were had, no bills were filed, no opportunities to 
appear in court were accorded, but a peremptory order 
was made by the Governor to accede to demands which 



THE SEIZURE OF THE COAL MINES 133 

had not been made or urged by the local miners them- 
selves but by a delegate from the district union in Mon- 
tana after a conference with the Governor. The increase 
in wages, which was ordered, was not even to be paid to 
the miners, but into the general national strike fund, and 
was to be used for the promotion of the national strike. 
Because of a refusal to comply with these orders, the state 
militia was peremptorily ordered to seize the mines, to op- 
erate them under the orders of the Governor, and to dis- 
tribute the proceeds as the Governor should direct. On 
complaint being made that the increase of wages de- 
manded could not be made without raising the price of 
coal, the suggestion was made that the price could be 
raised to the consumer to the extent of $1.75 a ton and 
that the added cost of production could thus be met. 

All of this was done in spite of the fact that there were 
thousands of farmers willing to work in the mines, that 
they were the consumers of the coal and would have to 
pay the added cost, that the increase in wages was not 
to be paid to the miners but into the national strike fund, 
that the miners in the principal mines were working at 
war prices and under a contract which was satisfactory 
to all and which did not expire until the September fol- 
lowing, and that prior to the conference of the delegates 
from Montana with the Governor of the state, no dis- 
satisfaction seems to have existed. 

In Kansas, there was an exigency, a controversy and 
a legal solution. In North Dakota there was no contro- 
versy and no exigency but an exercise of autocratic mili- 
tary power, and not for the benefit of the farmer or the 
consumer or of the local laborers themselves, but in order 
that friends might be made of the labor leaders in other 
states and of the National Miners' Union. 

Seldom if ever before in America has there been wit- 



i 3 4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

nessed such an autocratic exercise of power or such a mis- 
use of the military arm of the state, and the careful stu- 
dent cannot but agree with District Judge William Nues- 
sle, who had the courage to assert the dignity of the civil 
law and to issue an injunction, and who in an opinion said : 
"Under our system of government, all the powers of 
government are inherent in the people, and are by the 
people by and through the constitution granted, or dele- 
gated to certain departments. These department are co- 
ordinate and each charged with certain governmental 
functions. The reason for that, of course, is known to 
all of us, and arose by reason of grievances which the 
people suffered on account of misgovernment during the 
centuries preceding the formation of the American com- 
monwealth, and to forestall the possibility of usurpation 
by any individual, or set of individuals exercising the, 
powers of government, the framers of the federal con- 
stitution and the framers of the constitution of this state 
and the various states, sought to distribute the various 
functions and powers of government among three depart- 
ments in order that each might operate as a check against 
the other, to the end that the power of government might 
be balanced and the rights and liberties of the people safe- 
guarded thereunder. 

"These different departments are coordinate. Neither 
should interfere with the exercises or overstep the boun- 
daries of the powers of the other. If they do, there is 
bound to be a serious conflict, so that the strength of our 
form of government has itself one source of weakness 
in it. And for that reason I hesitated a long time before 
I issued an order to show cause in this particular case be- 
cause it involves direct attack upon another branch of 
our government. It is invoking the power of the judiciary 
to review the exercise of power by the executive, and if 



THE SEIZURE OF THE COAL MINES 135 

this court should make an order attempting in any way 
to interfere with the exercise of power by the executive 
department, the court could only enforce that order by 
the appointment of special executive agents to carry it out. 

"Ordinarily it is a function of the executive to carry 
out the mandates and see that the decrees of the judicial 
department are complied with, and if the executive de- 
partment should resist the enforcement of the orders of 
the judiciary, and the judicial department should seek to 
carry out this order the only result would be civil war. 
This is carrying the thing out to a logical conclusion. 
There is not escape from it. 

"On the other hand, should the executive department 
be permitted to go unchecked and exercise not only the 
functions that constitutionally belong to that department, 
but to overstep into the legislative department and say 
what the laws shall be, and into the judicial department 
and say how the laws shall be interpreted — if this is the 
case you have despotism., It seems to me the predicament 
this court is now in is a serious one, looking at the matter 
from either angle of the proposition. 

"As stated by Justice Davis in re Milligan, it is not the 
province of the court to interfere when the executive 
is acting within the law, but it is the duty of the court to 
declare the nullity of any illegal action on the part of 
the executive. So, embarrassing as it may be, I must hold 
in this particular case, in view of all the circumstances, 
that a temporary injunction must be granted, and that the 
defendants and each of them be restrained from further 
interference with the property of the plaintiff, and that 
the defendants and each of them be commanded to turn 
back to the plaintiff the property that has been taken 
by the defendants. I hesitate to do this, but it seems to 
me I cannot do otherwise viewing the law as I view it. 



136 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

It is a most embarrassing situation, fraught with embar- 
rassment not only to the court but to the people of the 
state of North Dakota. 

"As I look upon this matter of martial law, it is not 
so material that this court shall pass upon the propriety 
of the executive declaring martial law. As I read the 
authorities, and I have no quarrel with most of the author- 
ities cited by Mr. Richardson, yet as I view the authori- 
ties, where martial law is declared there is no interference 
with the civil courts and there is no suspension of civil 
rights and liberties, unless the courts themselves have been 
so incapacitated by reason of the circumstances existing 
and calling forth a declaration of martial law, that they 
are unable to function. The reason for martial law is 
necessity; to rehabilitate the courts; not to destroy them 
or usurp their powers. 

"This court, under the authorities, takes judicial notice 
of the situation as it exists with reference to the emerg- 
ency which has existed on account of the shortage of fuel. 
It is certainly a most deplorable situation that in the State 
of North Dakota with the great quantities of fuel we 
have so close to the surface, that there probably will be 
suffering on account of the present coal strike. 

"This is a deplorable situation, but in the view of this 
court, it does not warrant the exercise by the executive 
in the absence of a state of war or insurrection, tumult, 
riot, breach of the peace, or threatened breach of the 
peace in taking over private property for the purpose only 
of operating these properties commercially, even though 
the purpose be to avoid such threatened suffering and 
hardship. In my judgment there are other remedies not 
inconsistent with the powers given the executive under 
the constitution. 

"I believe in the case of great businesses such as rail- 



THE SEIZURE OF THE COAL MINES 137 

roads, coal mines, public heating and lighting plants, 
water systems, or any of the great quasi-public enter- 
prises, that the public is a third party to a three-cornered 
compact and that its rights are greater than that of either 
labor or capital operating the business in question, and I 
do believe there is inherent in the governmental powers 
given to the judiciary by our constitution, both state and 
federal, a power which may be invoked to right any situa- 
tion such as we may have, and to right it in a manner con- 
sistent with the constitution and consistent with the pow- 
ers given by the constitution to the other departments of 
the government. 

"And I do think that if the executive of this state can 
in his own judgment form a conclusion as to what is neces- 
sary, not to quell insurrection or breach of the peace, 
but to prevent suffering in the future at some time more 
or less remote; if he can by reason of that judgment not 
only call out the troops for the purpose of preserving 
peace, but can order these troops to seize private prop- 
erty, and compel men to work and operate that private 
property, even though to prevent the occurrence of the 
suffering we have spoken about, and there is no way for 
judicial review, that it is a most astonishing condition ab- 
horrent to every citizen and repugnant to every consti- 
tutional principle. 

"Carrying this thing to a logical conclusion, if the gov- 
ernor of this state, there being none of the things which 
would warrant him in declaring martial law, if the gov- 
ernor of this state can seize private property, there being 
no riot, tumult, breach of peace, or any of these things; 
if he can seize private property from the owners without 
any provision for compensation, and let them take their 
chances as to compensation, near or distant; if he can 
seize that property and operate it either by agreement, 



i 3 8 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

as happens in this case where the miners will work for 
the state and will not work for the private operators ; if 
he seizes the mines he may need mules and horses to 
operate them, he can go to the adjacent farmers and 
commandeer these mules and horses and say the state 
requires them; if he needs hay and oats to feed these 
mules and horses he can go to the next farmer and seize 
that property; he can seize the railroads and operate the 
railroads to distribute the coal that is mined, throughout 
the state to prevent the very suffering which he aims to 
prevent. 

a He can compel men to labor in these mines and pro- 
duce that coal under pain of imprisonment. It seems 
to me that it means on the one hand confiscation, and 
on the other hand involuntary servitude, and that the^ 
courts under the constitution must have the power, even 
though they cannot enforce the mandate they may issue 
consistent with that power, to pass upon and review such 
action. 

"It seems to me, if this is not the case, the governor 
can, when he deems an emergency arises, set aside all 
constitutional restraint, not only to preserve the peace, 
but to do that which he thinks he should do in order 
to effect such purpose as he thinks should be effected 
regardless of how that purpose may be viewed by the 
courts or by the people. 

"I appreciate that any mandate that this court may is- 
sue, unless the governor sees fit to recognize that man- 
date, cannot be enforced without civil war if the thing is 
carried to its logical conclusion. I do not want that. 

"I shall make an order requiring that this property be 
turned back, and that further interference be not had by 
these defendants, such order to be complied with at a 
future time, far enough in the future so that an appeal 



THE SEIZURE OF THE COAL MINES 139 

can be taken to the supreme court. I want this thing 
settled, and every citizen of the state wants its settled. 
If the view taken is wrong, and Mr. Richardson's view 
is right, we should know it at the very earliest moment. 
It does not seem to me that the Governor will resist the 
Supreme Court if the Supreme Court holds as I have in 
this matter." 

Fortunately for all parties concerned the settlement of 
the national coal strike soon ended the controversy, and 
though the military were for a time in possession, but 
little harm was done to any of the parties concerned. 1 

In the Legislative Session of 192 1, however, a bill was 
actually introduced for the state purchase and operation 
of a coal mine, the idea having been suggested by Gov- 
ernor Frazier in his inaugural address. 2 

1 The action of Governor Frazier was later affirmed by Charles F. 
Amidon of the United States District Court at Fargo, North Dakota. 
This decision, which for all time must remain a curio in our legal 
history, was later overruled by the United States Circuit Court of Ap- 
peals and the way was thus opened for suits for damages against those 
who had interfered with the conduct of the mines. 

The author is pleased to be able to add that although the Non-partisans 
followed their usual custom and sought to defeat Judge Nuessle for 
reelection the people of his district asserted their American citizenship 
^nd returned him by a large majority. 

a This bill, however, was defeated in the lower house. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE NON-PARTISANS AND THE I. W. W. 

It is hard to believe that the farmers of the Northwest, 
many of whom are large landed proprietors whose prop- 
erty interests sometimes reach into the hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars, will ever consent to unite permanently 
with the socialists and with the members of the Inde- 
pendent Workers of the World. From the time that the 
desire of forming a national party and of extending the 
operations of the League beyond the limits of North 
Dakota entered into the minds of its leaders, however, 
there can be no doubt that secret alliances have been 
made with these enemies of organized society, that their 
support has been urgently requested and that every effort 
has been made to obtain their favor. 1 

For many years the members of the I. W. W. have 
been extremely active in both North and South Dakota. 
They have terrorized railroad crews; they had commit- 
ted sabotage on the farms and they have even carried 
their activities so far as to organize and accomplish 
a jail delivery from the North Dakota penitentiary. In 
order to check their activities several more or less dras- 
tic measures of repression were passed by the South 
Dakota legislature. The North Dakota assembly, at 
the Legislative Session of 19 17, introduced similar bills, 
all of which at first met with approval, even in the Non- 

1 At all times the Non-partisan League has refused to pass anti- 
red-flag laws. It was, however, severely reprimanded at the polls by 
their passage on a referendum vote. 

140 



NON-PARTISANS AND THE I. W. W. 141 

partisan secret caucus. These bills, however, were op- 
posed at the last moment by William Lemke, who is 
perhaps one of the League's most adroit leaders, on the 
ground that they would tend to antagonize labor and that 
the labor vote, though perhaps not necessary in North 
Dakota, would be necessary in the other states in which 
the League at the time was seeking or might thereafter 
seek to gain a foothold. The bills were therefore never 
reported to the legislative body by the Non-partisan cau- 
cus and therefore, as was the case with all other bills not 
so reported, were defeated. 2 

In 19 1 8 or the early part of 19 19, when the dream of 
a national party first seems to have been seriously enter- 
tained, a scheme was launched for forming so-called 
Frazier Clubs in Minnesota, the purpose of which was 
to put forward Governor Frazier of North Dakota as 
"The People's Choice for President in 1920," and a 
pamphlet was printed, if not circulated, whose cover dis- 
played a picture of a farmer clasping hands with a labor- 

2 Of this incident and of the activities of Arthur Le Sueur who was 
a member of the Non-partisan League, the I. W. W. and of the 
Socialist party, the socialist paper, the New York Call under date 
of March 2, 1917, said: 

"The story of the North Dakota Non-partisan League was graphi- 
cally told at the Civic Club last night by Arthur Le Sueur, the 
League's legal adviser. 

"The organization in North Dakota now numbers 100,000 voters, 
and Mr. Le Sueur is on his way to Washington to convey to President 
Wilson a memorial from the League urging the President to keep the 
nation out of the European war, and protesting against the policy 
of proscription. 

"While the Non-partisan League in North Dakota is composed ex- 
clusively of farmers, Le Sueur declared that the labor unions of the 
state have stood as one man with the League, and further, that its 
program is composed of precisely the points included in the Socialist 
party platform for the last six years. . . . 

"Le Sueur said: 'The Senate (N. D.) passed an anti-I. W. W. law, 
and the House 'threw it out of the window' instead of passing such a 
law as the Senate desired. The House enacted a measure appropriating 
several hundred thousand dollars to be used by the commissioner of 
labor for the assistance of transient workers who come to the state at 
harvest time.' " 



142 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

ing man and also a picture of Governor Frazier. Though 
advocating the election of Governor Frazier this circular 
said nothing specifically concerning the farmer or the 
landed proprietor. It contained the inflammatory state- 
ment: 

"Present conditions demand immediate results. A few 
more years and only a bloody revolution will accomplish 
what our ballots can do now." 

And this statement Governor Frazier himself repeated 
in 19 19 in a Labor Day address at Bismarck, when among 
other things he said: 

"A peaceful change through the ballot to remedy a 
present national ill, but if this is not possible, then a revo- 
lution must come. ... I am willing to try out most 
any kind of new method that has any chance to serve 
humanity." 

It was later reaffirmed by him at a "Reconstruction" 
conference at the University of North Dakota in Oc- 
tober, 19 1 9, when he said: 

"Mr. Smith is right. Labor must go into politics. Un- 
less it gets its rights by the ballot it will get them some 
other way. I have been criticised for making this state- 
ment but I intend to keep right on making it." 

Arthur LeSueur, who was a member of both the 
League and the Socialist party and a member and the 
principal attorney of the I. W. W., in conjunction with 
David Coates, who was also a member of the three organ- 
izations and is credited with having organized the latter, 
had sought in 19 17 to obtain a collective bargaining agree- 
ment between the League and the laborers' organization. 
This plan failed only because the wages demanded by the 
members of the I. W. W. appeared to be too high. If 
carried out it would have created an alliance between the 
two organizations and would have made North Dakota 



NON-PARTISANS AND THE I. W. W. 143 

an I. W. W. closed shop. This is evidenced by the fol- 
lowing letters which were introduced in evidence in a 
trial of thirty-two members of the labor organization in 
the Kansas United States District Court. One of these 
was written on May 23, 19 17, by C. W. Anderson, secre- 
tary of the American Workers' Union Lodge No. 400 
of Minneapolis, and stated among other things: 

"The big drive will soon be on and you are going to 
see the biggest line-up in the history of the labor move- 
ment the coming summer. The Non-partisan League of 
North Dakota wants to have an understanding with the 
A. W. U. No. 400 for the hiring of farm help only 
through the Union here. If this comes to a successful 
head at the Kansas City meeting the 30th of this month, 
which I think it will, then it means that nobody can work 
in the grain belt unless they are Union men with cards up 
to date. You will probably know that this means the 
line-up of 75,000 workers here." 

Another letter was written by the same C. W. Ander- 
son to Fred Gouder of Great Falls, Montana, under date 
of June 4, 19 17, and among other things said: 

"The proposition of the Non-partisan League farmers 
of North Dakota was approved at the convention. A 
committee has been appointed to meet the farmers' or- 
ganization on conditions. This means all the harvesters 
will be hired through the Minneapolis office of the A. W . 
U. It will mean a line-up of 50,000 this year." 

In the official minutes of the convention of the A. W. U. 
No. 400 we also find the following: 

"Moved and seconded that we give the floor to Arthur 
LeSueur to explain what the grounds are on which we 
can meet and come to an understanding with the Non- 
partisan League . . . Arthur LeSueur made the fol- 
lowing statement . . . 'that if we can come to some 



i 4 4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

understanding with the Non-partisan League of North 
Dakota, it will mean the balance of power will be shifted 
from the state government to the Industrial Workers of 
the World and the Non-partisan League!" 

Of this plan Forrest Edwards, the secretary of the 
Minneapolis branch of the I. W. W., in a letter the orig- 
inal of which is now on file in the rooms of the Minne- 
sota State Historical Society, said : 

"Indications are that the 'guy' who does not carry an 
I. W. W. card in North Dakota this year will be out of 
luck. Should the proposition offered by the farmers' 
organization be accepted by our organization a rather 
humorous situation will exist in North Dakota. 

"When a farmer comes to town after a man, the wobbly 
will ask him for his card in the farmers' organization. 
If he has none, the wobbly will tell him there is nothing 
doing. The members of the farmers' organization, on 
the other hand, will hire only I. W. W. men. The unor- 
ganized farmer and the unorganized worker will be out 
of luck." 

North Dakota is essentially an agricultural state and 
its crops are largely small grains which are harvested 
during a short season and threshed from the shock. As 
there is no permanent or local labor supply in the state, 
the farmers are especially dependent upon imported la- 
bor. It is amazing, however, that any exigencies of labor 
supply should have suggested a coalition such as that con- 
templated, under which all other labor would have been 
excluded. The suggestion could have come only from a 
desire of the League's socialist hierarchy to bring about 
an era of sovietism and to obtain the votes and support 
of the radical laboring classes no matter what the conse- 
quences might be to orderly government. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE AND THE LABOR UNIONS 

Throughout its history the League's socialist hierarchy 
has attempted to gain the support of the labor organiza- 
tions, and so far it has met with a large measure of suc- 
cess. Not the least of the triumphs of the League was 
the securing of a promise of the Illinois Federation of 
Labor to withdraw its funds from the "capitalistic" banks 
of its own state and to deposit them in the state-owned 
bank of North Dakota, though if this were ever done, 
and as yet there is no official audit which can disclose the 
fact, it is quite clear that the present financial difficulties 
of that institution have occasioned their withdrawal. Be 
this as it may, however, it is clear that thus far the 
League and these organizations of laboring-men have 
been in close cooperation and that the only ground for 
friction between them has been the eight-hour day which 
the farmers have never been willing to concede to their 
own laborers and have therefore hesitated in endorsing in 
the case of industrial employees. 

The declaration of principles of the Working People's 
Non-partisan Political League of Minnesota is as follows: 

"i, That every human being is entitled to an oppor- 
tunity to earn a living, and should be fully protected in 
the just control of the fruits of his labor. 

"2. That the natural opportunities, together with the 
machinery and skill of the country, are capable of sup- 
plying abundantly all the wants of the people if al] 7» r ho 

145 



146 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

are willing and capable to work are given the freedom to 
do so ; and that poverty and want among the many, and 
superabundance among the few, are due to maladjust- 
ments in our industrial system. 

"3. That the opportunity for self-employment has 
passed, in a large measure, beyond the control of the 
mass of the people as the means and instruments of wealth 
production have become too expensive for the individual 
worker to own and too complex to operate. 

"4. That a comparatively few individuals and corpo- 
rations have secured effective control of industry and 
thereby arbitrarily determine the share of wealth that the 
mass of the people shall receive; and these monopolists 
retain for themselves the fabulous amount that remains. 

"5. That in spite of wage increases, the workers have 
been actually receiving an ever diminishing share of the 
wealth produced; as speculators and monopolists have 
been able to inflate prices and reabsorb every increase 
labor has been able to obtain. 

"6. That the process of steadily raising the price level 
is a new and an effective means of despoiling the pro- 
ducers, and lowering the standard of living. 

"7. That the industrial autocrats have extended their 
evil influence into the realm of government, and have cor- 
rupted and dominated our political institutions, and have 
employed the press and other agencies of information 
and education to misguide the people and bolster up 
monopoly's rule of robbery and oppression. 

"8. That the competition among the workers for em- 
ployment; the struggle of the workers against the employ- 
ers for a living wage ; and the strife among the capitalists 
for markets and customers make harmony, unity and 
progress impossible and must lead inevitably to strife and 



THE LABOR UNIONS 147 

conflict which tend to diminish and destroy the achieve- 
ments of civilization. 

"We therefore advocate the following legislative and 
political measures as tending to accomplish the changes 
necessary to establish equality of opportunity, and to 
abolish autocracy in industry and corruption in politics : 

Political and Legislative Program 

"i. The unqualified right of workers to organize and 
to deal collectively with employers through such repre- 
sentatives of their unions as they choose, to be recognized 
and enforced by appropriate legislative enactments. 

u 2. A maximum eight-hour day, of 44 hours a week, 
with one full day's rest in seven, in all branches of indus- 
try, with minimum rates of pay which, without the labor 
of mothers and children, will maintain the worker and 
his family in health and comfort, and provide a compe- 
tence for old age, with ample provision for recreation 
and good citizenship. 

"3. A workman's compensation plan, administered by 
the state, that will bring to injured workmen, their fam- 
ilies and dependents, sure, certain and full relief regard- 
less of question or fault and to the exclusion of every 
other remedy without recourse to the courts. 

"4. Abolition of unemployment by the creation of op- 
portunity for steady work at standard wages by the stabil- 
ization of industry through the establishment and opera- 
tion, during periods of depression, of government work 
on housing, road building, reforestation, reclamation of 
cut-over and swamp lands and development of water- 
power plants. 

"5. Public ownership and operation of railways, steam- 
ships, banking business, stockyards, packing plants, grain 
elevators, terminal markets, telegraphs, telephones and 



148 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

all other public utilities and the nationalization and de- 
velopment of basic natural resources, waterpower and 
unused land, with the repatriation of large holdings to 
the end that soldiers and sailors and dislocated workers 
may find an opportunity for an independent livelihood. 

"6. Reduction of the cost of living to a just level im- 
mediately by government restriction and supervision and 
as a permanent policy, by fostering the development of 
cooperation, which will eliminate wasteful methods, para- 
sitical middlemen and all profiteering in the creation and 
distribution of the products of industry and agriculture, 
in order that the actual producers may enjoy the fruits 
of their toil. 

"7. Revenue for the payment of public debts and for 
the expense of government shall be obtained mainly from 
taxes on incomes and inheritances and from a system of 
land-value taxation, which will stimulate rather than re- 
tard production. 

"8. Continuation of soldiers' and sailors' insurance; 
extension of such life insurance, by the government with- 
out profit, to all men and women; and the establishment 
of governmental insurance against industrial and other 
accidents, illness, unemployment and old age, and upon 
all insurable forms of property, establishment of a defi- 
nite fund to provide adequately for pensions for indigent 
mothers. 

"9. Complete equality of men and women in govern- 
ment and in industry, with the fullest enfranchisement 
of women, and equal pay for men and women doing sim- 
ilar work. 

"10. That the autocratic domination of the forces of 
wealth production and distribution by selfish private in- 
terests, which has proved to be the prolific source of class 
antagonisms, and the prime cause of industrial paralysis 



THE LABOR UNIONS 149 

and consequent idleness and poverty among the masses, 
shall be gradually superseded by a process of govern- 
mental supervision, which shall ultimately put those who 
work by hand and brain in control of industry and com- 
merce for the benefit of all the people. 

"11. Cooperation with the national government in the 
establishment of a department of education coordinate 
with other branches of the federal government, in order 
that a uniform and effective educational system may be 
developed in which every child will be guaranteed a 
thorough cultural and industrial education and the 
academic freedom and economic independence of the 
teachers will be secured. 

"12. As the freedom of speech, of the press and of 
assemblage are the surest safeguards against tyranny, 
revolution and reaction, and a guarantee of the orderly 
development of industry and the peaceful progress of so- 
ciety, we demand the immediate and complete restoration 
of these fundamental political rights, with adequate se- 
curity against their abridgment or infringement by any 
person or persons whatsover." 

In the same pamphlet, we find the following reference 
to the Farmers' Non-partisan League : 

Wage Earners and Farmers 

"The gravest danger that has confronted the plunder- 
bund in big business in America has been the possibility 
of the farmers and city workers joining hands on the 
political field. Every effort has been made to keep these | 
two most powerful producing elements in society as far 
apaTt as possible. Being pitted against each other has 
rendered them helpless and easy victims for the fully 
organized exploiters of both. 



ISO NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Farmers Prove the Lie 

"It remained for the farmers in North Dakota, through 
their elected farmer legislature, to forever destroy the 
false and unbased theory that these two greatest of the 
nation's industrial classes should not and can not work 
hand in hand for and with each other for the common 
good of all. 

"The farmers' National Non-partisan League of North 
Dakota, in complete control of the Sixteenth Legislative 
Assembly, 19 19, with power to make and unmake laws 
at will, proved itself to be a genuine and loyal friend 
to labor. 

u This farmer legislature literally opened its arms to 
the labor forces of the state, inviting them to present such 
legislation as they desired. Ever on the alert for friendly 
overtures along this line, labor promptly availed itself 
of this unheard of opportunity. The success with which 
it met was far above the expectations of the most sanguine 
of the labor group. 

"Upon the invitation of the farmers, the State Fed- 
eration of Labor, representing the allied crafts, as well 
as other labor which was not organized, presented such 
bills as it had hopelessly endeavored to have passed for 
years at previous legislatures. And these farmers, with- 
out dodging, without inserting and injecting jokers to 
make the laws ineffective, and in sturdy good faith passed 
every bill requested by labor. Labor was then invited 
by these farmers to present any other laws they desired 
to have passed so long as they conformed to good govern- 
ment and were just in their demands. 

"Labor has worked incessantly in almost every state to 
secure the enactment of compensation, mine inspection, 
anti-injunction, eight-hour and minimum wage for women, 



THE LABOR UNIONS 151 

full-train-crew and other righteous laws for labor, but 
with only limited and meager success. 

"North Dakota now has all these laws and more, given 
them by the farmers. Labor in no other state can claim 
as much nor anything to compare with North Dakota. 
North Dakota is in complete control of farmers. Every 
other state is directly or indirectly under the control of 
representatives of corporate interests who tell labor that 
the farmer in his enemy." 

Nor were these mere idle words. After having been 
defeated at the Minnesota primaries by Jacob Preus, the 
regular Republican candidate for governor, the Non- 
partisan candidate, Henrik Shipstead, was accorded the 
same place on the Workingmen's Non-partisan or Labor 
Ticket in the fall elections of 1920, and throughout in 
Minnesota, and especially in the cities of St. Paul, Minne- 
apolis, and Duluth, the Non-partisan and the laborer 
have worked hand in hand. 

In North Dakota the League leaders and the League's 
representatives in Congress enthusiastically endorsed the 
so-called Plumb bill in regard to railroad management 
and control, and in return the League was as enthusias- 
tically supported by the railroad employees. 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE LEAGUE AND THE WORLD'S WAR 



The charge of disloyalty has frequently been made 
against the League, and no doubt had much to do with its 
defeat in the Minnesota elections of 191 8. No doubt, 
also, the accusation was true as far as many of the leaders 
and speakers of the League were concerned. * It was un- 
true of the majority of the League's candidates for politi- 
cal office and of the rank and file of the organization. 
That rank and file was composed of the landowners and 
farmers of the Northwest, and the farmer of the North- 
west never has been and never will be a traitor. 

There can be no doubt that many of these farmers were 
pro-German before the entry of the United States into the 
war. But being a pro-German before the United States 
became involved, at any rate before the sinking of the 
Lusitania, is an entirely different thing from being a pro- 
German afterwards. Doubtless there was sometimes an 
appearance of disloyalty, and in many instances a possi- 
bility, and to a certain extent, a probability of disloyalty. 
And it was that possibility and probability that the social- 
ist disloyalists relied upon, and which was the cause of 
most of their seditious utterances. 

Many of the farmers of the Northwest were German 
born. Many of them belonged to the Lutheran faith, 
and Prussia is a Lutheran state. Many of the pastors, 
and ministers, and teachers of the Scandinavians and 
Germans of the Northwest have been educated in the 

152 



THE LEAGUE AND THE WORLD'S WAR 153 

German universities. Among some Catholics there was 
at first a leaning towards Germany and an antagonism 
towards France because of the disestablishment of the 
church by the French republic. It is also to be remem- 
bered that the Irishman is no great lover of Great Britain, 
and that our school histories have hardly been friendly to 
that nation or apt to make the American youth its willing 
and enthusiastically. 

All these things the socialist orator and propagandist 
saw. He overestimated their importance and, like the 
Kaiser himself, he failed to understand America and the 
real and fundamental loyalty of all of our classes and 
all of our creeds. Because he overestimated their impor- 
tance he sought to make political capital out of treason. 
That many of these speakers and leaders were disloyal is 
a matter which is above controversy. They were socialists 
and the socialist is seldom a patriot. He has a class con- 
science and not a national conscience. He has a class 
loyalty and not a national loyalty. This is especially true 
of the so-called international socialist. We may say all 
that we will about international brotherhood, "the parlia- 
ment of man and the federation of the world," but the 
abstraction is too great for the ordinary mind and is gen- 
erally fatal to what we term patriotism. The ordinary 
man needs something that is concrete and specific. He 
needs.something that is tangible to be loyal to. He needs 
to have a love for particular and local rocks and rills and 
not for geological formations in general. He needs one 
tradition and one flag. When he makes that flag but one 
of a world constellation, he loses it in the common mass. 
Especially is this true when the man's loyalty is not even 
to the nations or to the people of the world, but to a cer- 
tain class within those nations. 

Perhaps, however, the largest factor in the seeming 



1 54 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

disloyalty and the chief reason for the seditious utterances 
that were made (and these utterances consisted largely 
of the statement that the war was a rich man's war) , was 
the fear of the leaders that, in the excitement and pressure 
of the war, local issues would be lost sight of. Through- 
out the world, indeed, the socialist, the union laborer, 
the prohibitionist and even the anti-child labor enthu- 
siast seems to have been careful that in the great and press- 
ing issues of the war, and in the fervor of patriotism, his 
little issues should not be forgotten, and to have feared 
that just as the Civil War turned the attention of the 
people from the prohibition issue and brought to nought 
the efforts of its advocates which seemed then to be near- 
ing success, so would the propaganda of the socialists, the 
farmers and the laboring-man also be forgotten in the 
World War. If these were forgotten, where would be 
their causes, and above all what would become of the 
political fortunes of their leaders? After the entry 
of America into the war, the League as a whole was 
behind it, the farmers of the Northwest rallied to the 
Flag and their sons cheerfully joined the colors; in the 
lists of those who distinguished themselves upon the field 
of battle there are scores of names, from North Dakota, 
some even of German origin. In America's honor roll 
of glory the foreign born and the son of the foreign born 
are fully represented; yet, even when advocating patriot- 
ism, many of the leaders of the League seem to have 
thought it necessary to call attention to their industrial 
program, the demands of the farmer and the local eco- 
nomic issues. Governor Frazier would say, "Of course 
we are behind the flag, but the farmers should have $2.50 
for their wheat," and the statement was everywhere made 
that the capitalists were profiting unduly by the war and 
that there should be a conscription of wealth as well as of 



THE LEAGUE AND THE WORLD'S WAR 155 

men. It was repeatedly stated that though, since the 
nation was at war it was the duty of all to stand behind 
our armies, the war was none the less a capitalists' war 
and that it should never have been. 

This may not have been disloyalty, but certainly it was 
not patriotism. Patriotism is a fervor; it is a faith; it is 
an inspiration. Patriotism knows no "buts." In the war 
addresses of Governor Frazier the "but" was everywhere 
in evidence. A fervid patriot would hardly have peti- 
tioned for the pardon of Kate O'Hare, who had been 
convicted of obstructing the draft by calling the mothers 
of the soldiers "mere brood sows," and would hardly 
have stated, as did Governor Frazier, that the prosecu- 
tion was merely the result of political prejudice. 

Although the farmer boys of North Dakota and the 
sons of the members of the Non-partisan League itself 
responded loyally to their country's call and although the 
North Dakota farmer did his part towards contributing 
to the various war subscriptions, yet it may well be asked 
if the leaders of the League were not among the country's 
most prominent political profiteers. 

In September, 19 17, Professor G. E. Call, of the Kan- 
sas State College of Agriculture estimated the American 
farmer's net profit on wheat at $2.20 a bushel to be 41 
cents. This estimate was based on an average of $28 per 
acre for the wheat land of the country, an average crop 
of fourteen bushels an acre, and an average cost of 78.7 
cents per bushel to the farmer, and a net profit of $16.96 
per acre throughout the country. 

This estimate must appear reasonable to any candid 
observer, for it is to be remembered that the cost of labor 
and materials, even in 19 17, was not nearly as high as it 
is to-day, and everyone knows that, except in those dis- 
tricts where the climatic conditions were unfavorable, the 



156 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

really good farmers of North Dakota made large profits 
on the war prices. Everyone knows also that there are 
hundreds of thousands of farmers in the country who be- 
came prosperous and independent during the years when 
a dollar a bushel was a high and an unusual price. 

In spite of these facts, however, M. Hagan, the 
Non-partisan commissioner of agriculture of the State 
of North Dakota, sought to prove that it cost a farmer 
over $21 an acre to raise wheat and stated that "to sell 
wheat for $2.20 which it cost the farmer $3 to raise" 
was "a high price to pay for patriotism." He based his 
cost of $3 a bushel on the assumption that the average 
yield of North Dakota was only seven bushels an acre, 
and he may have been correct in his estimate if he took the 
state as a whole. If he was correct, however, it was 
merely because North Dakota contained a large number 
of poor farmers, who not only did not fertilize or pul- 
verize their soil, but sought to raise wheat on land that 
was entirely unadapted to it, as it is in the western and 
semi-arid portions of the state. No one indeed would 
claim that even fourteen bushels an acre is suggestive 
of good farming. 

It was Mr. Townley, however, whose statements were 
the most deceptive and who was most energetic in insisting 
on the prerogatives of the farmer. At a meeting of the 
Non-partisan League which was held at St. Paul in 
September, 19 17, he said: 

"There is a great difference between our patriotism, the 
patriotism of the men who toil that the profiteers may 
make four billions of dollars, and the patriotism of the 
men who make the billions. While the farmers and other 
producers have been raising crops to feed the armies of 
liberty, making ships and munitions and implements of 
war, a lot of gentlemen have been spending their ample 



THE LEAGUE AND THE WORLD'S WAR 157 

leisure in announcing their patriotism. When you work 
sixteen hours a day for liberty and democracy you haven't 
much time or will to wave the flag. 

"So they say the farmers are not patriotic. But four 
billions of profits robbed from the workers will pay for 
a lot of patriotic announcing. But now you have taken 
a day off to announce your patriotism. Yet you can not 
do as much announcing as they do, those men who leave 
the production of all things to us. Those men whose 
hands are white and soft, and whose skins are round and 
smooth, have more time to wave the flag than we have. 

"If we were to put in as much time waving it as they do 
the whole world would starve to death. The profiteers 
and their kept press are very lavish of patriotism, but too 
much of it comes from money stolen from us. Their 
arms are red with the blood that proves they are not 
patriots. And if they are not patriots what in h — are 
they? Who has a German helmet? Place it upon their 
heads, and you will see the Kaiser himself. Patriotism is 
based upon justice, not upon robbery. 

"I want to say to you and to the newspaper men here 
that if the papers will tell the truth about this damnable 
thing as you and I see it, the profiteers will have to go 
out of business, because they can't stand the breath of 
truth. No criminal can. When the life of liberty and 
democracy, when the life of this nation hangs but by a 
thread, these are the men who talk to us of patriotism 
and call themselves patriots. And then when a farmer's 
boy complains because his wheat is marked down twenty 
cents a bushel because it contains five pounds of barley 
they brand him as a pro-German. My answer is that 
with the aid of the boys who are marching to the battle- 
front we may yet defeat the representatives of autocracy 
in our midst as well as abroad. 



1 58 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

"We say to the profiteers : 'Government price-fixing is 
all right. Come on in, the water is fine. We do not ask 
to fix the price of what you sell us according to the price 
we fix on what we sell you. We ask you to sell us accord- 
ing to the price you have fixed on what we sell to you/ 
I believe there is enough patriotism in the country to see 
a square deal of this kind. I do not believe that America 
has been Prussianized yet. 

"It is our duty to support the government in its efforts 
to fix prices, and if it were not for the patriotism of iron 
and steel and coal and flour we would have a square deal 
to-day. Let the government make those gentlemen pro- 
duce without profit, as it is making us do, and they will 
quickly say to the government : 'Here, take these things. 
We can't use them.' And then we shall have government 
ownership. Their patriotism is of the kind that it takes 
war-profits to make work. After these fine gentlemen 
have been trimmed they will have some real patriotism, 
and the country will be ahead that much. 

"It will grade about No. 4, at that, but it will not be 
'feed wheat' or 'rejected,' like the kind they have now. 
When you take the profit out of war no one will be inter- 
ested in keeping this war for liberty and democracy going 
any longer than is necessary to save them. If it is right 
to conscript your son's life, that most precious life, it is 
right to conscript the coal and steel that God made." 

On still another occasion A. C. Townley said : 

"The flower of the young manhood of this nation is 
going across the water to bleed, as we are told, for the 
honor of the country, but it needs some effort for me to 
believe that these young men are going to fight for the 
freedom of democracy. . . . 

"I refuse to urge you farmers to raise a larger crop 
until you or they wipe out this monstrous wrong and I 



THE LEAGUE AND THE WORLD'S WAR 159 

will say that unless they are big enough to control the 
transportation of food and coal for the Northwest I can- 
not see a possibility of the United States being successful 
in this war." 

In a book entitled, Why Is Your Country at War, and 
What Happens to You After the War, and Related Sub- 
jects, Charles A. Lindbergh, the League's candidate for 
governor of Minnesota in 19 18, made the following 
statements: 

"We have been dragged into the war by the intrigue 
of speculators." 

"I believe the problem could have been settled without 
war or the sacrifice of national honor." 

"Wealth saw to it that the conditions would be created 
that would make it practically impossible for us to keep 
out of war." 

"Wealth was so greedy that it had to build greater 
fortunes, even if it took the sacrifice of millions of lives 
and entailed suffering on more than nine-tenths of the 
world's population." 

"It was the demand of wealth that we should prepare 
a great navy and a great army in order to enforce the 
existing political and economic system not only upon our- 
selves but upon the world — present and future." 

"No one can reasonably justify our entry into the war 
solely because some of our citizens were unlawfully 
murdered." 

"Without consulting the people . . . congress and the 
president did declare war." 

"Our democracy is indeed weak when we resort to 
conscription." 

"Then came the Red Cross campaign for funds. . . . 
What they want is to control the organization of the Red 



160 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Cross, because it will be officered by able persons, and to 
control that organization will be worth billions of 
dollars." 

"It has indeed been humiliating to the American people 
to see how the wealth-grabbers, owners of the 'big' press, 
actually attempt by scurrilous editorials and specially pre- 
pared articles to drive the people as if we were a lot of 
cattle, to buy bonds, subscribe to the Red Cross, to register 
for conscription, and all the other things." 

In 19 17, Joseph Gilbert, a former manager of the 
National Non-partisan League, was sentenced to serve 
a year in jail, and to pay a fine of $500 for a speech 
made at Kenyon, Minnesota, criticising the Government 
for conscripting soldiers for the war; and this conviction 
was afterwards sustained by the Supreme Court of the 
United States. At about the same time, A. C. Townley 
was also convicted of violating the Minnesota espion- 
age act, but the case is still on appeal, and has not yet 
been decided. J. O. Bentall, 1 who was also a League 

1 In an issue of The International Socialist Review, which was pub- 
lished in September, 1917, we read: 

"Sugarman and Bentall — Just as the Review goes to press word 
comes to this office that State Secretary of the S. P. of Minnesota, A. L. 
Sugarman and J. O. Bentall have been arrested on a charge of attempt- 
ing to 'obstruct the war.' Comrade Bentall writes us from the county- 
jail in Minneapolis. 'There are about fifty of us on this floor and the 
boys are all eager to know about Socialism. Some are party members 
and 'slackers.' We have had some great meetings in Minnesota, all 
from 3,000 to 10,000 people. At Hutchinson at least 10,000 came — some 
20 or 30 miles — full of enthusiasm and eagerness. I never saw any- 
thing like it. In the middle of my speech the postmaster rushed up 
on the platform and struck me in the face. He was promptly reduced 
to quiet by some big farmers, and I talked another hour and a half. 
People are falling over each other to hear about Socialism these days. 
They are no longer afraid of it, and the farmers are most radical and 
fearless. They no longer imagine that this is a free country and they 
rebel like mad bulls. They can't believe that capitalists, through a 
few hireling politicians, can rob us of 'our liberties.' All they need 
is education. Eight thousand attended the meeting at Dale, including 
two sheriffs, three judges and several U. S. deputy marshals and a num- 
ber of plain clothes men. We sold all our literature and needed more. 



THE LEAGUE AND THE WORLD'S WAR 161 

leader, and the socialist candidate for governor of Min- 
nesota, was also convicted of disloyalty, and sent to Fort 
Leavenworth for five years. 

There can also be no doubt that, in the state of Min- 
nesota, many Germans and others of foreign birth were 
led by some of the organizers of the League to believe 
that if they would only join the ranks of the new party 
their sons would be saved from conscription, and it is 
quite certain that it was not until the League 2 was goaded 
to it by adverse criticism that it came out with a positive 
declaration of loyalty and that even that declaration had 
beneath it and within it a protest, and lacked the ring of 
true patriotism. The declaration was as follows : 

"We pledge anew our devotion to our country in this 
supreme hour of trial. We reaffirm our faith in the prin- 
ciples of democracy and pledge our lives, our fortunes 
and our sacred honor to the struggle to free the world 
from autocracy and establish democracy, political and 
industrial, among the peoples of the earth. 

"We declare it to be our solemn conviction that the 

Later I went back to the old farm, hitched up the tractor to two eight 
foot binders and had just gone one round on our oats when a U. S. 
deputy marshal came along and arrested me. So I shut down the gas 
horse and here I am. There is just one thing I want to say, I never 
talk against war; all I do is to talk peace. They say that it was the 
little Hutchinson postmaster who reported me as undesirable. His 
word went. Good cheer to you all in the grand work for the revolu- 
tion. Everything is coming our way." 

2 At a meeting of the League which was held at St. Paul in Sep- 
tember, 1 91 7, Governor Frazier said: 

"They are loyal and patriotic, and will defend the Stars and 
Stripes to the last ditch. All they want is a square deal, and the 
purpose of this conference is to put that square deal up to the Food 
Administration. The farmers have had poor crops for two years, and 
the price of $2.20 for wheat, while a good price in other times, is 
too low for this year. If the price of wheat is to be fixed, then we ask 
the Government to go down the line and fix the prices on all the 
necessaries of life. I believe the Government is going to do this. I 
believe there is patriotism enough in the country and among the wealthier 
classes and the Eastern people to see that the poorer classes get a 
square deal." 



1 62 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

German military autocracy, revealed in all its horror by 
the ruthless rape of Russia, is a menace to the world. 
We pledge our unqualified support to our government in 
the war to free the world from this menace. 

"We indorse wholeheartedly the statement of war aims 
by the president of the United States. We believe that he 
has stated clearly and unequivocally the real intent in the 
hearts of the American people and that this statement 
forms a sure basis for a lasting and democratic peace. 

"We extend greetings and pledge our support to the 
forces in every country which are struggling for democ- 
racy, and especially to the people of Russia, in this hour 
when the new democracy of the East is beset by foes 
within and without. ' 

"While giving our utmost energies to the prosecution 
of the world war for democracy, we are not unmindful 
that there are enemies of democracy in the homeland. 
These are the powers of special privilege which take 
advantage of the opportunity which war affords to more 
firmly entrench themselves in their control of government 
and of industry. These interests are amassing enormous 
fortunes out of the world's misery. They are reaching 
for our remaining public resources. They are striving to 
destroy the organization of farmers and workers. They 
are handicapping the progress of the war by their profi- 
teering and thus prolonging the war and sacrificing the 
lives of thousands of America's finest sons." 

A noticeable feature of the whole movement, and a 
feature which conclusively shows its socialist leadership, 
is the fact that a charge or even a conviction for dis- 
loyalty, or the disbarment of a lawyer from practicing 
in the courts appears never at any time to have been con- 
sidered in any sense a disqualification for public office, 



THE LEAGUE AND THE WORLD'S WAR 163 

and that candidates with these records were enthusi- 
astically supported. 

It is no doubt true that many men are unjustly accused 
of crime; that many men during the excitement of the 
recent war were unjustly accused of disloyalty, and that 
some perhaps were unjustly convicted. It is no doubt 
true that some lawyers who have been disbarred and 
some ministers who have been unfrocked have later re- 
pented and become worthy of the fullest confidence. 
Never before, however, in the history of America, have 
records such as theirs been elements of political strength 
and passports to political appointments. 



/ 



CHAPTER XVIII 

TERRORISTIC POLICIES OF THE NEW AUTOCRACY 

The policy of the leaders of the League has been 
throughout to brook no opposition. Much of their legis- 
lation has been terroristic; that of the special session of 
1920 was entirely so. 

They found that their Attorney-General,, William 
Langer, their State Auditor, Carl Kositeky, and their 
Secretary of State, Thomas Hall, were not subservient 
to all their desires, so by statute they removed them from 
various taxing, equalization, and other boards to which 
they had formerly belonged. 1 

They cut down the appropriations for the office of the 
Attorney-General 2 and of the State Auditor so that it 
would be impossible for these officials to perform the 
duties of their offices and so that it would be extremely 
difficult for the State Auditor to audit properly the books 

1 Formerly the auditing board was composed of the governor, the 
state auditor, the attorney general, the state treasurer, and the secre- 
tary of state. Now and by chapter 21 of the Laws of the Special 
Session of 1919 the secretary of state and the state auditor were 
dropped from the board and the commissioner of insurance and the state 
examiner were substituted in their places. 

2 Formerly the attorney-general was authorized by statute to appoint 
his own assistants. Now and by the act of the Special Session of 1919 their 
number was reduced to two. Chapter 20 of the Session Laws also 
provides that "the Governor may, when he deems it necessary, appoint 
Special Assistant Attorneys-General. Such appointment shall be in 
writing and when made shall confer upon such assistants such powers 
as are exercised by regular Assistant Attorneys-General, when such 
powers are not expressly limited by the terms of such appointment. 
Such appointment shall be revocable at the pleasure of the Governor." 

164 



TERRORISTIC POLICIES 165 

and the accounts of the state departments and of the state 
institutions. 3 

They found that two of the members of the Tax Com- 
mission were not in accord with their policies, so they 
transformed a three member commission into a one mem- 
ber commission. They found that they could not defeat 
the. State Superintendent of Public Instruction at the polls, 
so by statute they deprived her of practically all of the 
powers of her office. They found that the people of the 
capital city of Bismarck were generally opposed to them, 
so they vigorously promoted a campaign which should 
remove the state capital to another place, and vigorously 
denounced and defeated at the polls the judges of the 
Supreme 'Court, who properly and on valid constitutional 
grounds held the election invalid. They passed a statute 
which made criticism of the League's industrial program 
a felony 4 and created an investigating committee with 

3 His action had a comic as well as a serious aftermath. 

At the close of the Special Legislative Session of 1919 the State 
Auditor kept long lines of legislators waiting for days for their war- 
rants for per diem and other expenses, under the pretext that his office 
was under manned, that it was impossible for him to immediately audit 
all of the bills that were presented, and that he chose to audit first 
those of the state's general creditors and of his own personal friends. 
Later on he created a small panic by adopting the same course in re- 
gard to the monthly salary warrants of the state officers and employees. 
When urged to work what few employees he had overtime, he quoted 
the eight-hour labor law which the Non-partisans had themselves 
adopted. There was direct excuse for his action for at one time there 
was in his office and requiring attention, 1,300 expense accounts and 
20,000 hail department warrants, nearly 1,000 salary accounts and 
many other miscellaneous accounts, to say nothing of those which had 
to be examined outside of the capitol building. 

4 Chapter 36 on the Special Session Laws of the Session of 1919 
is defined to be "An Act making it a felony for any state official to 
publish willfully false statements with reference to any state department, 
institution or industry and presenting the manner in which such cases 
under the provisions of this act shall be tried and providing the penalty 
therefor." 

Its provisions are as follows: 

"No state official shall wilfully publish any false statement in regard 
to any of the state departments, institutions or industries which said 
false statements shall tend to deceive the public and create a distrust of 



1 66 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

inquisitorial powers. 5 At one time they found that the 
Senate would not approve the Governor's nominations 
of their candidates for members of the State Board of 

the state officials or employees in charge of such departments, institu- 
tions or industries, or which tends to obstruct, hinder and delay the 
various departments, institutions and industries of the state. 

"The district court in any county in the state where any such 
false statements shall have been uttered or otherwise published, shall 
have jurisdiction to try any case brought under the provisions of 
this Act. 

"In all prosecutions under the provisions of this Act and tried by a 
jury such jurors shall be selected from various parts of the county 
in which such case shall be tried. 

"Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed 
guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state 
penitentiary for a term of one year or by a fine of Five Hundred 
Dollars ($500.00), or both." 

6 Chapter 41 of the Laws of the Special Session of 1919 gives to 
us what is termed "a joint resolution creating a joint investigation com- 
mittee ; defining its rights and powers, and authorizing it to investigate 
all efforts to destroy or injure the property or rights of individuals, 
corporations, or any of the industries, enterprises or utilities owned by 
the State, or the credit of the State, or to unlawfully influence or cor- 
rupt elections or results thereof and to report the results of such exami- 
nations to the Governor, to the Legislative Assembly and State's At- 
torneys; and making an appropriation therefor; and providing for 
bonds." 

Sections one and two are as follows: 

"A joint committee of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North 
Dakota, consisting of five members, two of whom shall be Members 
of the Senate, to be named by the presiding officer of the Senate, and 
three of whom shall be Representatives of the House, to be named by the 
Speaker of the House, is hereby created and shall be known as the 
committee for investigating conspiracies and conduct against law and 
order and government in North Dakota. 

"It shall be the duty of this committee, and it is hereby directed 
and authorized, to examine and investigate, on the written complaint 
of any person, or on its own initiative, as a committee, any depart- 
ment or public office of this state, and all acts, efforts, attempts, trans- 
actions, proceedings and conspiracies to destroy or injure, or which 
were or are designed or intended to injure or destroy, the property, 
reputation, freedom, rights or business of any person, corporation, 
association, company or group of persons in the State of North Dakota, 
or any of the industries, enterprises or utilities owned by the State 
of North Dakota, or the credit of the State of North Dakota, or to 
influence, corrupt or control any election or primary, or the result of 
any election or primary, by force, violence, riot, libel, blacklist, black- 
mail, threat, coercion, fraud, misrepresentation, deceit, or by the use 
or abuse of legal process or official power or by any unlawful or 
oppressive means or method whatever, and report the results of such 
examination and investigation to the Governor of the State of North 



TERRORISTIC POLICIES 167 

Regents, so they induced their Governor to make the 
appointments without the consent of the Senate, and 
their judges affirmed the appointments. They sought to 
restrain the press by providing that legal and public 
notices should be printed only in a limited number of 
papers, and gave to a central board the power to select 
the newspapers. They were thus able to drive a number 
of independent newspapers out of existence. 

They created a state sheriff so that the administration 
of the criminal laws of the state should be in their own 
hands, especially such laws as related to seditious utter- 
ances. 6 They took from the courts the power of disbar- 
ment and required the attorneys of the state to pay an 
annual license fee of fifteen dollars, and to be subject to 
the control of a central board. They sought to remove 
the president of the State University because he failed to 
agree with them in all of their propaganda, and were only 
deterred from so doing by a walk-out on the part of the 
students. They passed a general absentee voters' law 
which could be used even by those who were within the 
state and by women who lived more than half a mile 
from the polls, which did much to destroy the secrecy of 
the Australian ballot and which made it once more pos- 
sible for the political boss to deliver votes. 

And not only has there been a legislative terrorism but 

Dakota for such executive action as he may in his discretion take, and 
to the Senate and House of Representatives of the next regular 
assembly of the State of North Dakota, and to the respective State's 
Attorneys for criminal prosecution." 

6 This law created the office of State Sheriff, to be filled by ap- 
pointment by the Governor, and to hold his office at the pleasure of the 
Governor. This state sheriff was given a sort of supervisory power 
over the sheriffs in all of the counties of the state, and given power 
to remove any and all county sheriffs at his pleasure. Under this law 
the sheriffs of all of the counties of the state elected by the people in 
their respective counties, no matter how diligent and faithful they were 
in the performance of their official duties, could be removed from office 
at any time by the snap of Mr. Townley's finger. 



1 68 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

a social and business terrorism also. Not only has the 
state patronage been given to the friends of the organiza- 
tion, and all of the legal and state printing given to the 
favored Non-partisan newspapers, not only have the 
funds of the Bank of North Dakota been loaned to fa- 
vored banks and for the support and use of the friends 
and of the enterprises of the League, but the business 
boycott has been freely used and openly threatened. 
Bankers, newspaper men, and storekeepers have been 
forced into submission by the threat that rival state or 
cooperative enterprises would be organized and that 
loans by the Bank of North Dakota would be refused. 
During the campaign of 1920 A. C. Townley candidly 
told the business men of several small towns that the 
returns at the fall elections would be carefully scrutinized 
and that a hostile vote in the town or village would be 
punished by the organization of rival stores and a thor- 
oughly organized agitation to induce the farmers to buy 
all of their goods from the mail order houses of the 
eastern cities. 7 

7 In the Bismarck Tribune, bearing date October 26, 1920, we find the 
following despatch: 

"Fargo, Oct. 25. — A. C. Townley told an audience of Non-partisan 
League farmers and residents at Finley on Wednesday afternoon that 
he would come back to Finley if he had 'to crawl* to wreak vengeance 
on business men if they by their vote or by their influence defeated him 
in the November election. 

"Erick Ellingson, a Sherbrooke, Steele county, township farmer, who 
attended the meeting, was in Fargo to-day and he quoted Mr. Townley 
as follows: 

'If I find that you poison gas bags, I. V. A. (Independent Voters' 
League) in Finley, have done anything by your vote or your influence 
to defeat me, Frazier, Lemke, Hagan and the rest of the ticket, I will 
see to it that the Non-partisan farmers around Finley will not spend a 
dollar with you, so help me God. . . . You don't have to get your goods 
here, you can send away to Sears and Roebuck for them, they don't fight 
the Non-partisan League. ... I will come back to Finley if I have to 
crawl, and start the biggest consumers store that was ever started.' 

"The threat by Townley to 'get' the business men of Finley is similar 
to that made by him at Stanley, Minot, Michigan, Grand Forks, Langdon, 
Valley City and many other places." 



TERRORISTIC POLICIES 169 

At all times the League has held the threat of opposi- 
tion at the polls over the head of the elective judiciary. 
They have executed the threat whenever it appeared to 
them to be necessary. 

Throughout the hierarchy has desired speedy action 
and has had the zealot's belief that all who were not 
with it were not only against it but against democratic 
progress, and it has brooked no opposition.lt has asserted 
to its utmost the theory of a government by the temporary 
majority rather than by the law and has failed to concede 
the right of free thought or discussion and the value of 
a thoughtful democracy. It is true no doubt that in the 
earlier days of the state many of these things were done 
by the so-called McKenzie autocracy. They have been 
sometimes attempted even in the more recent years. Like 
the revolution in Russia, however, the new democracy 
has become more autocratic than the Big Business and 
the so-called aristocracy which it has sought to supplant. 

This elicited the following letter which was written by and sent to 
every member by Fred P. Mann, the president, and W. A. Donnelly, 
the secretary, of the North Dakota Retail Merchant's Association: 

"Mr. A. C. Townley has repeatedly stated in the past few days 
that if he is defeated in the election on November 2, 1920, he will return 
to North Dakota and put every merchant out of business by organizing 
a great boycott of the farmers against all the business men of the 
State of North Dakota. 

"What do you think of it, men, when you, a free American citizen 
of the United States of America, are told how you can vote, and for 
what political party you can work by A. C. Townley? If there is an 
ounce of true American blood in your veins you will do everything 
in your power to defeat A. C. Townley, the dictator and false leader 
of the farmers' movement in North Dakota, and rid the state of so- 
cialism and mismanagement, putting the Non-partisan League back into 
the hands of the farmers, where it will be properly managed, and a 
great benefit to all of the people of the state. 

"I am sure that every merchant in the state of North Dakota is a 
true friend of the farmer, our interests have always been one. We have 
worked together for the upbuilding and development of the great State of 
North Dakota, and I am sure that A. C. Townley or any other man can- 
not divide us into two opposing factions." 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 

From the beginning the League's leaders have realized 
that there is still in the hearts of the people a certain 
reverence for a government under the constitutions and 
under the laws. They have, however, openly dared to 
put into practice and to assert the doctrine that the judge 
is after all a mere representative and that the temporary 
majority has a right to demand that he shall interpret the 
constitutions and the laws as it, the temporary majority, 
desires. The desire of Mr. Townley was for direct 
action. He wished to push through his program by force 
rather than by argument. He did not desire to give the 
people time to think. He therefore left to a radical law- 
yer, William Lemke, the selection of the candidates for 
the bench, and Lemke interviewed the aspirants, and chose 
and recommended to the conventions those whom he was 
satisfied favored his ideas and would yield to the economic 
and constitutional theories of the League. One of them, 
Mr. James E. Robinson, who was elected to a seat on the 
Supreme Bench by perhaps the largest vote ever cast in 
the state for a judicial candidate, openly went before the 
convention and promised if elected to support its meas- 
ures. During the judicial campaigns the League's orators 
and publications repeatedly stated that it was absolutely 
necessary that the constitutionality of their measures 
should be sustained and that therefore it was more neces- 
sary that the judges endorsed by the League should be 

170 



THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 171 

elected than even the governor himself. These things 
have perhaps been done secretly in the past, and it is no 
doubt true that the so-called vested interests have often 
taken a prominent part in the selection of what they have 
termed safe and sane judges who, they believed, would fa- 
vor their social, constitutional and economic views. This 
however was done secretly. Never before has the theory 
that a judge is a representative and not a judge been 
openly advanced, and never before has a sovereign people 
been told that it was more necessary to elect a certain 
judge than even the governor himself. Never before 
has a judge gone before a business or a political conven- 
tion and pledged himself in advance. And above all, and 
this is the most serious aspect of the whole case, never 
has a sovereign people been so blind to the real functions 
of the judiciary, the real meaning of a government by 
law and not by men, by right and not by might, or by the 
force of a temporary majority, that they have elected a 
man because he has so promised. 

Never before in the history of America has a protesting 
judge found it necessary to write such a dissenting opinion 
as was written by the author of this book when in the case 
of State ex. rel Twitchell v. Hall x he said : 

"Bruce, Ch. J.: (dissenting) 

"This is an application for a writ of injunction to re- 

1 This case involved the right to amend the state constitution by 
the initiative process. In the prior case of State Ex. Rel. v. Hall, which 
is commonly known as the New Rockford case, in which an attempt 
was made to remove the state capital from Bismarck to New Rock- 
ford, the court had held that though an amendment had been adopted 
looking towards the future amendment of the constitution by the initia- 
tive, that constitutional provision was not self-executing but merely 
conferred upon the legislature the power to formulate a scheme for 
such purpose, and that legislative action was necessary before the 
initiative could be used. This opinion and decision Mr. Justice 
Robinson had promised to overrule, and it is the public aknowledgement 
of this promise that furnishes the occasion for Chief Justice Bruce's 
dissenting opinion. 



172 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

strain the Secretary of State from submitting to a vote 
of the people various proposed constitutional amendments 
which have been sought to be instituted by a popular 
initiative and by popular petitions. The applicant invokes 
the original jurisdiction of this court and an order to show 
cause has been issued. 

"The respondent moves to dismiss the proceedings upon 
the ground 'that this court has no jurisdiction to grant 
the relief prayed for herein or over the subject matter 
of the action of the parties herein, upon the alleged cause 
of action as stated in the petition.' 

"He also, and in case his original challenge to the juris- 
diction of this court is denied, demurs to the petition on 
the grounds: 

'i. That the plaintiff herein does not state facts suffi- 
cient to constitute a cause of action or grounds for relief 
herein. 

( 2. That the court has no jurisdiction over the subject 
matter of this action or over the person of the defendant 
as such upon the allegations of the petition herein. 

'3. That the said plaintiff has no legal capacity to 
institute or maintain this action. 

"All of these matters were thoroughly discussed in the 
exhaustive opinions which were filed by this court in the 
case of State ex rel. v. Hall, 35 North Dakota 34, 159 
N. W. 281, and were unanimously decided against the 
contention of the respondent. It is, indeed, difficult to 
understand why in the light of this decision the Secretary 
of State should ever have contemplated the action which 
is threatened by him. 

"It is true that the petitions which have been filed with 
him contain the signatures of many thousands of voters. 
It is no doubt true, as has been publicly stated by my asso- 
ciate Mr. Justice Robinson, that he, the said Justice, made 



THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 173 

a preelection promise to overrule the decision in the case 
of State ex. rel. v. Hall, supra, and that he would not 
have been elected if he had not done so, and it may be 
true, as asserted by Mr. Justice Robinson, that the Secre- 
tary of State was conversant with this fact. I have yet 
to learn, however, that the making of any such preelection 
promises was ever contemplated by the framers of our 
government or that a show of force in the shape of a 
numerously signed petition should serve as a proper justi- 
fication for a violation of my oath of office and a reason 
why I should hold that to be the law which I do not be- 
lieve to be the law. It may also be true that the Secretary 
of State has already gone to a great expense in printing 
the proposed constitutional amendments, but it is not 
shown that the petitioner was a party thereto, or before 
he brought his present action had any knowledge that such 
Secretary would, take upon himself the interpretation of 
the law and consider a seriously considered opinion of the 
Supreme Court of his state a mere scrap of paper. If, 
indeed, wanton and unnecessary expense has been incurred 
it has been by the Secretary of State and not by the voters 
of this state or by the petitioner, all of whom were justi- 
fied in believing that the reign of law was still among us. 
I am fully satisfied with the correctness of the decision 
of this court in the case of State ex rel. v. Hall, supra, 
and of that of the Supreme Court of Indiana in the case 
of Ellingham v. Dye, 178 Ind. 326, and believe that we 
have long since passed the time when it is expedient or 
wise for the courts to administer the law on the basis of 
their own individual opinions and to change the estab- 
lished law with every temporary wave of popular opinion. 
u There was, it is true, a time when the 'conscience' of 
a court of equity was presumed to be the personal con- 
science of the judge and when there were no established 



174 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

rules and there was no such thing as res judicata or stare 
decisis. This time has long since passed. Its death knell 
was perhaps rung when Selden in his Table Talk and in 
referring to the law as so administered said : 

'Equity is a roguish thing. For law we have a meas- 
ure, and know what we trust to. Equity is according to 
the conscience of him that is chancellor; and as that is 
larger or narrower, so is equity. 'Tis all one as if they 
should make his foot the standard for the measure we call 
chancellor's foot. What an uncertain measure would 
this be ! One chancellor has a long foot, another a short 
foot, a third an indifferent foot. 'Tis the same thing in 
the chancellor's conscience. ' 

"I may, perhaps be justified in using as my own the 
language of the great English chancellor, Lord Eldon, 
when in 1818 and in the case of Gee v. Pritchard, 2 
Swanst. 402, he said: 

'Nothing would inflict on me greater pain in quitting 
this place than the recollection that I have done anything 
to justify the reproach that the equity of this court varies 
like the chancellor's foot.' 

"For the reasons above advanced I am of the opinion 
that the writ should issue and that the prayer of the peti- 
tioner should be granted. I do not believe that the con- 
stitutional provision is self-executing. I express no opinion 
upon the question whether the amendment itself was legal- 
ly adopted, as I do not consider that the decision of this 
point is necessary at this time." 

It is seldom that political leaders or a political conven- 
tion has been willing to select, or, by an overwhelming 
vote, a sovereign people have been willing to elect a su- 
preme court judge who in another important case would 
be willing to write as follows: 

"Robinson, J. (dissenting). The purpose of this suit 



THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 175 

is to compel the county treasurer of Ransom county to 
annually transmit to the state treasurer from the county 
tuition fund a sum equal to ten cents for each child of 
school age. The county treasurer appeals from an order 
and judgment sustaining a demurrer to the complaint. 

"The action is based on chapter 251, Laws of 19 13. It 
is an action to create a teacher's pension fund, and to pen- 
sion such teachers as may serve for a certain number of 
years and contribute to the fund a certain percentage of 
their salary. As there are few who are so stupid as to 
make of teaching a life business, the chances are that one 
hundred persons must contribute to the fund for every 
person who wins a prize or pension. Hence, the action 
does in effect provide for a kind of lottery. One great 
objection to the lottery scheme was that the expense of 
administration amounted to 48 per cent. The same ob- 
jection applies to the handling of the teachers' pension 
fund. The scheme is petty, wasteful and expensive. It 
has nothing to commend it. The teacher is fairly well 
paid, and his business is not in any way laborious or haz- 
ardous. It affords more leisure than any industrial busi- 
ness. In each week the teacher has only thirty working 
hours, which are reduced by holiday vacations. 

"The action in question seems in direct conflict with 
these provisions of the Constitution: 

'The legislative assembly shall have no power to au- 
thorize lotteries or gift enterprises for any purpose.' 

'No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law, ana 
every law imposing a tax shall state distinctly the object 
of the same, to which only it shall be applied.' 

'Neither the state nor any county, city, township, town 
or school district or any other political subdivision shall 
loan or give its credit or make donations to or in aid of 
any individual,' 



176 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

'Taxes shall be levied and collected for public purposes 
only.' 

"Now calling it by any name, the giving of a prize, dona- 
tion, or gift to a school-teacher is not giving it for public 
purposes. And such giving by the state, county, or any 
political subdivision is directly prohibited. Were it com- 
petent to give such prizes or pensions to the school-teach- 
ing class, it would be equally competent to give them to 
the clergy, the farming class, or to any other class of 
persons. The act in question does not purport to impose 
a tax on any person or municipality, but it directs that a 
part of the tax which has been imposed by law for educa- 
tional purposes shall be diverted and applied to the giving 
of prizes or pensions. 

"Now, under the Constitution, every law imposing a 
tax must state distinctly the object of the same, to which 
only it shall be applied. 

"Hence, we need not argue that when a tax is levied for 
one purpose the legislature may not pass an act diverting 
it to any other purpose. The conclusion is that the act 
in question does contravene the Constitution, and it is 
void." 

It is rarely in America that we find Supreme Court 
Justices writing to the press letters such as that which 
follows : 

SATURDAY EVENING LETTER 

By Justice J. E. Robinson 

December 7, 19 18. 

" ' 'Tis the last rose of summer, 
Left blooming alone; 
All her lovely companions 
Are faded and gone; 



THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 177 

No flower of her kindred, 

No rosebud is nigh, 
To reflect back her blushes 

Or give for sigh.' 

"Justice Christianson is the rose of the court, the last of 
the old line judges — the last of the Mohicans. Well may- 
he sing: 

'I feel like one who treads alone 

Some banquet hall deserted, 
Whose lights are sped, whose banner fled 

And all but he departed.' 

"All his lovely companions are faded and gone and 
their places are filled by good Non-partisan judges. And, 
though comparisons be odious, I venture to predict that 
the Non-partisan court will in efficiency and fairness far 
surpass any former court of the state ; that they will not 
be slaves to any erroneous or rotten decisions called prece- 
dents — and that in future no person will be deprived of 
life, liberty or property without due process of law. 

"Our new member, Judge Bronson, is pure-bred — a 
good worker and a thinker with a large bump of justice 
and a clear perception of the difference between right and 
wrong. Our Justice Grace : He is of the right pedigree, 
a worker, and a jurist of a luminous mind. Our Judge 
Birdzell, he may be rated as a good half-breed; while the 
old-liners made him law professor at the U and tax com- 
missioner, Bishop Lemke virtually made him judge. Chris- 
tianson is our new chief justice. He is a jurist of capacity 
and a real gentleman. When left to his own good im- 
pulses he is sure to stand for the cause of right and 
justice. Yet we are all creatures of environment, and so 



178 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

it is on many occasions our present chieftain has fallen 
into error by putting too much trust in his former com- 
panions. 

"You will remember the famous horse killing suit, when 
the ex-chief justice steadfastly maintained that the live 
stock board had absolute power to order the killing of 
certain good work horses and that our court was power- 
less to prevent it. The judges stood three to two in favor 
of an absolute power to kill horses. It was the same as 
holding that the stock board might go on and kill all the 
horses in the state, and the courts were powerless to inter- 
fere. But on this matter we had several conferences and 
animated discussions and at the third conference a light 
seemed to shine around the intellect of Judge Christianson 
as it shown around Paul on his^way to Damascus to per- 
secute the Christians. He veered to the minority side, 
and the good horses were saved. We did not have to 
write a funeral dirge. 

"Once upon a time a justice of the peace of Morton 
county assumed the role of a czar by making a decree for 
the destruction of property worth $25,000. The owners 
brought suit to protect their rights and on an appeal from 
an order sustaining a demurrer to the complaint, the ma- 
jority of the court held that the justice of the peace had 
jurisdiction. In several such suits the present and the past 
chief justice always stood as a pair. They said: It is 
true that in a civil action or in a criminal action a justice 
of the peace can have no jurisdiction when the amount in 
controversy is greater than $200, but a suit to destroy 
property worth $25,000 is neither a civil nor a criminal 
action — that it is a quasi-civil and criminal procedure — 
and hence there is no limit to the jurisdiction of a justice 
of the peace. Of course you will know that was perfectly 
preposterous. But as the rime says: 



THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 179 

'Not every man can be a poet, 
More than a sheep can be a go-at.' 

"Some three years ago in a case known as Lee v. Dolan, 
an execution for $1,000 was issued on a worthless judg- 
ment. It was not returned within sixty days, as provided 
by statute. For that reason the sheriff was fined $1,000 
with ten per cent penalty for the use of the plaintiff, and 
on an appeal the judgment was sustained, with the cynical 
remark : 'There can be no claim that any physical suffer- 
ing is involved in the penalty.' In a similar case, within 
a year, our court refused to follow that erroneous deci- 
sion. We held, in effect, that the purpose of the law is 
not to aid one man in robbing another, even though it may 
not 'involve physical suffering.' 

"In 25 N. D. there is a decision written by ex-Justice 
Spalding in a suit to redeem a good quarter section from a 
foreclosure sale. The sale was for $54 and costs. The 
court denied a redemption. In several such cases the 
present court has permitted a redemption holding that 
courts should not sustain a robbery, though made in ac- 
cordance with the forms and technicalities of the law. A 
foreclosure proceeding should be conducted in good faith 
and fairness. 'Good faith consists in an honest intention 
to abstain from taking any unconscious advantage of an- 
other, even through the forms or technicalities of law.' 

"In early days it was held that when a person is charged 
with a crime, if it is named a contempt, the judge may 
deny him a trial by jury and in a summary matter convict 
him on mere affidavits and sentence him to the state's 
prison for two years. This you may call a rotten, office- 
seeking decision; because under the plain words of the 
constitution, any person accused of crime is guaranteed 



180 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

the right of trial by jury, and that right cannot be evaded 
by calling the crime a contempt. 

But now under better influences it is hoped none of our 
judges will now feel inclined to continue piling error upon 
error by following the lead of decisions so manifestly 
erroneous or rotten. 

With the advent of Justice Bronson and our new chief 
justice, our court has turned a new leaf. During this week 
every judge has reported for duty promptly at nine a. m. 
We have set out in good earnest to catch up and keep up 
with the work of the court and to administer justice with- 
out denial or delay. James E. Robinson." 

This letter was written immediately after the resigna- 
tion from the bench of the author of this book. After the 
hearing in the Live Stock Case, which is referred to, but 
before its final decision, Mr. Justice Robinson carried on 
an active correspondence with the owner of the horses 
without the knowledge of the other parties to the litiga- 
tion, and wrote several letters to the press expressing his 
opinion of the case, and even published a tentative opin- 
ion. This was done in order to bring public ridicule upon 
those of his associates who differed with him, and to com- 
pel them to concur in his view of the controversy. This, 
indeed, has been the jurist's common practice. Law suits 
to him should be tried by the public, and not the court, 
and the judges should be representatives and not the ex- 
pounders of an established law. To Justice Robinson it 
is perfectly fitting and proper for a judge to talk to the 
litigants and council pending a law suit or pending an 
appeal, and to even announce his decision in advance of 
the litigation. 

In another public letter, and in advance of any lawsuit 
testing the validity of the so-called bone-dry law of 



THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 181 

North Dakota, and by way of gratuitous advice to pros- 
pective litigants, Mr. Justice Robinson said: 

"October 26, 19 18. — What may we do to be saved? 
How may we get whiskey and quinine? The flu has in- 
vaded the state and death is everywhere stalking over the 
land. The hospitals are filled with the sick. Many deaths 
occur every day, and we are as defenseless as sheep with- 
out a shepherd. Our Supreme Court is no more. The 
flu has given it a complete knockout and we hope that it 
may knock some wisdom and knowledge into the heads 
of us all. Any one should know that whiskey and quinine 
— any good liquor, wine or brandy — is the best and safest 
of all stimulants; and that for grippe, the flu, and pneu- 
monia it is the best of all remedies. It is an antidote for 
the poison. The timely use of a bottle would have saved 
the life of . . . and the lives of hundreds of other good 
people, dead or dying all over the state. But the remedy 
is not to be had for love or money. It was excluded from 
the state by reason of the fake and deceptive bone-dry 
act, put on the books in March, 19 17. You should know 
how it was done. On March 2, 19 17, at the very close 
of the legislative session, without the consent of the Sen- 
ate, a few members of the House, by trick and artifice, 
secured the apparent passage of House Bill 39 with fake 
and false amendments not approved by the Senate. The 
Senate had passed an amendment permitting every person 
within each period of thirty days to import for his per- 
sonal and family use four quarts of whiskey or five gallons 
of wine or seventy-two quarts of beer. And in lieu of that 
amendment a few members of the House, by trick and 
artifice, secured the apparent passage of H. B. 39, with a 
false and fake amendment making it a crime for any per- 
son to receive, import or possess intoxicating liquor for 



1 82 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

any purpose whatsoever. Yet the fake was engrossed as 
a part of the bill which was approved and booked as a 
law of the state. And without knowing how the act was 
faked, it was recognized as a valid statute by the judges, 
the attorney-general, U. S. Judge Amidon and U. S. 
Attorney Hildreth. And it became the principal business 
of the attorney-general and his deputies to prosecute of- 
fenses against the fake bone-dry statute. We must not 
think that it was done knowingly. To discover the fraud 
it was necessary to search for it and to examine the volu- 
minous Senate and House journals, and the printed bills. 
The journals are not printed until long after the session 
and are not to be found in the law offices. One is for- 
tunate to find the journals and printed bills in the office 
of the secretary of state. The faking of a statute is so 
uncommon that lawyers and judges are not sufficiently on 
the lookout for that kind of work. 

"On July 31, 19 17, without knowing or suspecting that 
the bone-dry statute was a pure fake, I gave the press an 
article maintaining that it was void because of defects in 
its title and because on its passage it was not read at 
length, as required by the constitution; but these were 
objections on which it was possible for lawyers to differ, 
and they proved of no avail. Now it is different. Now 
the facts are known and it appears beyond all honest 
dispute that the bone-dry statute is a mere fake and a 
fraud. It was never passed by the Senate, and at the last 
extra session in the Senate, by a resolution without a dis- 
senting vote, the supposed act was roundly denounced as 
a fake and a fraud. Journal 118. 

"The constitution provides : 

'Sec. 65. No bill shall become a law, except by a vote 
of all the members elected to each House.' 



THE LEAGUE AND THE COURTS 183 

'Sec. 63. Every bill must be read three times, and the 
first and second reading must be at length.' 

'Sec. 61. No bill shall embrace more than one subject 
which must be expressed in its title.' 

'Sec. 58. No bill shall be altered and amended on its 
passage so as to change its original purpose.' 

"The fake bill contravenes each provision. Its title is: 
A Bill to Regulate the Receipt and Possession of Intoxi- 
cating Liquors. The fake amendment makes it a bill to 
prohibit the receipt or possession of liquor for any pur- 
pose whatsoever. 

"As I have shown, the U. S. bone-dry statute of March 
3, 19 17, is a rider tacked onto the last section of the 
postal appropriation act, and its purpose was to put the 
federal law in harmony with the state law. It does not 
forbid any importation for medicinal purposes, nor any 
importation that is permitted by the laws of the state, and 
indeed, while Congress has a constitutional power to reg- 
ulate interstate commerce, it has no legal power to destroy 
such commerce. 

"Now, where are we at? Now it appears our bone-dry 
statute is a pure fake ; shall we have any more prosecutions 
under it? Will our attorney general confess that we have 
been fearfully mistaken and that there is no bone-dry 
statute ; will he try to undo the past wrongs of the fakers 
and to open the way for every person to get his good anti- 
flu medicine? 

"And now a word in regard to the dose of liquor and 
quinine. When a person is taken with the flu, he is as a 
person bitten by a rattlesnake. He can drink liquor like 
water until he has had enough, because one poison kills 
the other. Drink till you feel happy. Go to bed and 
sweat. Take a quinine pill with every two or three swal- 
lows of the good medicine. Eat plenty of good steak or 



1 84 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

roast beef, and then like a christian scientist, you may 
order the flu to go to the hot place." 

James E. Robinson. 

Even in this age when a federal judge has not consid- 
ered it improper to become a baseball magnate and in 
which to many persons newspaper headlines appear to 
be more to be desired than the approval of the bar and 
of the thoughtful public, we can nowhere find any parallel 
to the judicial travesty that now prevails in the state of 
North Dakota. If it were not a tragedy it would be a 
comedy. The tragedy of the whole matter lies in the 
fact that the law is being prostituted, that the people were 
told that it would be prostituted, and yet that by an over- 
whelming vote they have appeared to express a willing- 
ness that these things should be. 

The Non-partisan management desired to make certain 
the judicial sanction of their program. They therefore 
picked their judicial candidates, and their followers sup- 
ported them regardless of their qualifications. 

We have but one comment to make — in order that 
there may be a stable government under the laws, the 
courts must be trusted, the courts must be respected, and 
in order to be respected they must themselves be respect- 
able and respectful. Can and do these necessary things 
exist under the judicial theories and practices which for 
the last few years have prevailed in North Dakota ? Can 
we afford to leave the selection of our judges to a socialist 
hierarchy, or to elect them by means of a class appeal? 



CHAPTER XX 

THE SUPREME COURT AND THE SCANDINAVIAN- 
AMERICAN BANK CASE 

Much has been said of the so-called Fargo bank case 
and both sides to the controversy have sought to derive 
political capital therefrom. To the thoughtful observer 
the importance of the case will lie in its very confusion 
and in the lesson that it should serve to those who seek 
to make of the judge a representative of the temporary 
majority rather than a judicial officer. It was a fitting 
and a logical sequel to still another bank case, the You- 
man's case, which we will describe in the next chapter. 

The Scandinavian-American Bank of Fargo was incor- 
porated under the laws of North Dakota, was what is 
commonly called a state bank, and was therefore not sub- 
ject to federal jurisdiction and control. The League 
transacted much of its banking business with it, and, 
especially before the Bank of North Dakota was organ- 
ized, made large use of it as a financial agency. After the 
latter bank was incorporated, it and its officers dealt 
extensively with the local institution. 1 The bank was espe- 

1 According to the report of Deputy Bank Examiner P. E. Halldor- 
son, which was made in April, 1919, the bank's excess loans amounted 
to $410,140.75, and among these loans were $11,300.00 to Townley's 
so-called Florida Sisal Trust, $72,617.78 to the Non-partisan League, 
and $130,000.00 to the Consumers' United Stores Co., which was a 
Non-partisan subsidiary organization. Of these excess loans, the Bank 
Examiner in his report says: 

"It is needless to say that this line of credit is entirely too large re- 
gardless of the value of the collateral. It appears to me that a bank 
with a $60,000 combined capital and surplus should not be permitted 
to carry a line so grossly excessive." 

185 



1 86 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

daily useful as a clearing house for the numerous post- 
dated checks, which, as we have before stated, the League 
accepted in payment of membership dues as well as of 
larger contributions from its wealthier members. These 
post-dated checks could, of course, in no sense have been 
termed good banking collateral, and it is quite clear that 
the federal banking authorities would not have recog- 
nized them as such. 

In September, 19 19, the State Board of Bank Exam- 
iners was composed of the Governor, Lynn J. Frazier, the 
Attorney-General, William Langer and the Secretary of 
State Thomas Hall. William Langer became suspicious 
that a large amount of the supposed assets of the local 
bank consisted of post-dated checks and similar securities 
and that the bank might be #insolvent. He also was of 
the opinion that some of these checks had been negotiated 
with the Bank of North Dakota itself, but as that bank 
had steadily refused to have its books and accounts aud- 
ited or examined either by the State Auditor or by the 
Banking Board, an examination of the affairs of the Fargo 
bank was the only method at hand of ascertaining the 
fact. An examination was therefore ordered and the 
deputy Bank Examiner, who conducted it, reported that 
the bank had some $75,000 in post-dated checks among 
its assets, had largely exceeded its authorized loaning limit 
and was totally insolvent. The bank was therefore closed 
by the order of the board and a receiver was appointed. 
This action was of course a body-blow to the League as 
it seriously affected its credit and the negotiation of its 
unbankable securities. It was also charged that the ac- 
tion was actuated by political motives as at this time both 
the Attorney-General and the Secretary of State seem to 
have broken with the leaders of the farmers' organization. 
Of this little need be said. Even if the motives were 



SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN BANK CASE 187 

political, it is quite clear that the action was warranted, 
that the Banking Board would have been remiss in its 
duties if it had not taken it, and that the verdict of a 
Fargo jury which later convicted the president of the 
bank of the crime of making false representations to the 
examiner has sufficiently shown that all was not right with 
the affairs of the institution. It is true that later the 
friends of the bank rallied to its support and took up the 
rejected paper, but this was the result of strong pressure 
from the leaders of the League and of a public appeal 
which could hardly be considered a general bank asset or 
something that bank examiners should contemplate in the 
case of an insolvent institution. 

Under the statutes of North Dakota, although the 
Board of Bank Examiners may close any bank when they 
see fit and appoint a temporary receiver, provision is made 
for an immediate hearing and review in the district court 
so that, if the action is unwarranted, as little harm as pos- 
sible may be done. This course was open to the friends 
of the bank and of the League. It involved however a 
full hearing and a complete disclosure of the affairs of 
the bank. The District Judge had not long before decided 
an important case against the interests of the League and 
it was only u favorable" judges that they wished to deal 
with — judges, in short, who sensed the necessity of yield- 
ing to the wishes of the temporary majority. They there- 
fore decided to take direct action in the Supreme Court 
and made an application in that court to have the bank 
declared solvent and the receiver removed. The Supreme 
Court had as a matter of law no original jurisdiction in 
the case at all. It was a court of appeals and not a court 
in which cases could be tried in the first instance except 
in the rare cases where the state itself was compelled to 
bring an action to prevent its officers from being interfered 



1 88 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

with in the execution of their duties, or in some other sim- 
ilar case which involved the franchises or prerogatives of 
the people of the state as a whole. The bank case was 
not such a case. The bank was a private bank. By their 
application to the Supreme Court the League and its 
friends were seeking not to protect a public officer in the 
exercise of his duties and his powers, but to have the At- 
torney-General of the state and the Banking Board en- 
joined from executing those duties and to have their 
receiver removed. The action was opposed to and not in 
aid of the sovereignity of the state. The proper and only 
procedure would have been to bring the action in the 
District Court, and then if necessary to appeal to the 
Supreme Court on the record and the testimony produced 
in the lower tribunal. 

There can be no question of the insolvency of the bank 
and of its violation of the banking laws. It was closed 
on October 2, 19 19. Its combined capital and surplus 
was $60,000. The report of the Deputy Bank Examiner 
which was made at that time showed liabilities of $1,606,- 
847 of which $700,000 were for individual deposits and 
more than $900,000 for money due to other banks. It 
showed excess loans of $734,194.32 of which $432,956.00 
were made to the National Non-partisan League and to 
its affiliated organizations. In some instances the only 
security for these loans was post-dated checks and notes 
given by farmers and used as collateral for a series of 
accommodation notes signed by various organizers and 
officials of the League's various subsidiary organizations. 

The Supreme Court, however, not only allowed the 
action to be brought but it dismissed the receiver and 
enjoined the Attorney-General and the Banking Board 
from interfering with the bank. On the hearing it re- 
fused to allow the Attorney-General to examine witnesses 



SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN BANK CASE 189 

or to submit oral testimony. And it decided the case 
purely on ex parte affidavits which were produced by the 
League and by the bank. It even went so far as to hold 
that the bank was solvent and that the post-dated checks 
were good bank collateral. There are few court records 
which are more grotesque. 2 

3 In this case Chief Justice A. M. Christianson and Associate Justice 
Luther E. Birdzell dissented, and were fully vindicated in February, 
1921, when the League's officials were themselves compelled to close the 
bank. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE YOUMANS BANK CASE AND THE SUPREME 
TEST OF GOVERNMENT 

This case was however but a sequel to another case, that 
of Youmans v. Hanna. 

Youmans was a real estate dealer and a banker of some 
notoriety. He had early espoused the cause of the Non- 
partisan League. He had been especially prominent 
in connection with some riots or near-riots which 
had taken place at the city of Minot, North Dakota, 
during which some meetings of the members of the 
I. W. W. were sought to be dispersed, and he had 
vigorously espoused the cause of the brotherhood. He 
was therefore popular both with the members of the 
League and with the I. W. W. The League was 
bitterly opposed to the then governor, Louis B. Hanna, 
who by virtue of his office was a member of the 
State Banking Board. Prior to the incumbency of 
Governor Hanna, and during the administration of Gov- 
ernor Burke, the Banking Board had made complaint con- 
cerning the management of the institution, an adverse re- 
port had been made, and the bank had been directed to 
retire and replace its unbankable securities. During the 
administration of Governor Hanna complaint was again 
made; investigation was had, and it was discovered that 
Mr. Youmans had been in the habit of obtaining first 
mortgages on farming lands, and small second com- 

190 



THE YOUMANS BANK CASE 191 

mission mortgages on the same property; to sell these 
larger first mortgages in the East and through his 
trust company, then later on, in default of payment, 
to foreclose the second or commission mortgages, and to 
bid in the land at the sales. He would then go upon the 
street, find some harvest hand or other similar person, 
give him a deed of the land, then take back from such 
person a note and mortgage for a considerable amount; 
then in order to make everything secure, he would take 
back a deed of the land, and then, in spite of the fact that 
the first mortgages were still outstanding and of course 
prior liens, he would turn the notes and mortgages into the 
bank at their face value. There can be no doubt as to the 
fact of these transactions, nor can there be any doubt that 
the harvest hands who executed the notes and mortgages 
were often mere tramps, nor that the deeds that were 
given back to Mr. Youmans were considered to be of so 
little value that he had secured at least twenty of them 
for the sum of two dollars. When the Banking Board 
again investigated this bank during the term of office of 
Governor Hanna, they found some sixty thousand dollars 
worth of these notes and securities among the assets of 
the bank. Mr. Youmans failed to replace them with 
good securities, and the bank was closed. A little later 
Mr. Youmans sold his interest in the bank to some local 
parties. Later, however, he brought a suit for damages 
against the members of the Banking Board, charging a 
conspiracy to wreck his bank. 

The case was tried at Minot, North Dakota, Mr. You- 
mans being represented by Arthur Le Sueur, who since 
has been and at that time was the counsel for the I. W. 
W., and by James Manahan of St. Paul, who has always 
been prominent in the councils of the Non-partisan 
jLeague. During the trial, the court room was filled with 



192 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

rowdies, and the judge was frequently threatened and 
intimidated. 1 

1 In charging the jury Judge Kneeshaw said: 

"Now, gentlemen of the jury, I cannot refrain from making a few 
remarks with reference to my coming here, and certain matters that 
transpired during the trial. I was invited to come here and preside 
in this case. I dfd not know at the time I came here what the case was. 
If I had known what the case was, I assure you that I would never have 
been here. I have endeavored during the time I have been here to try 
the case honestly and fairly upon my part. It is my duty under the law 
and under my oath as a judge of this state to decide a case fairly and 
impartially on the law, and decide all questions of law. I have at- 
temped to do so. Lots of evidence has been stricken out and lots of evi- 
dence has been rejected on proper objection. I did so believing that I 
was acting rightly under the law doing so. I believe I am right. If I 
were not, they have redress in the Supreme Court, and it is my fault if 
I made any mistake in that respect, and it is not your fault 

"Now there are many things that transpired here. I have seen 
some disgraceful proceedings by the audience in this case, some things 
I have never seen in any court of justice before. It indicates to me 
that there are certain people in this audience — I don't know who they 
are, I don't know at the present time, but during the trial of this case — 
who must have perverted minds, people who would trample our beau- 
tiful flag of stars and stripes, men who are not entitled to live in any 
community, and I am ashamed of them. 

"I have also heard remarks pass while I have been here, meaning 
that I have been unfair and unjust; that I have not given the plaintiff 
a fair show. I have heard remarks of a certain person who stated that 
'that little judge, before Manahan gets through with him, he would 
be down on his knees to him,' and remarks of that kind. 

"Now, gentlemen of the jury, I have endeavored to do my duty as 
an American citizen, honestly, faithfully, and justly in the sight of 
God, and I am not ashamed of anything that I have done at this trial. 

"Another matter that has transpired and I desire as a matter of 
privilege to speak about it, and that is this: while walking down town 
to-day after dinner, I walked ahead of a couple of gentlemen who I 
am sorry to say are attorneys in this case, and I heard certain remarks. 
I was with a gentleman who heard them at the same time, stating words 
to this effect: 'That we will have a meeting in the opera house next 
Sunday, and it will be crowded to overflowing, and I will remain here 
until that time, and we will talk the case over from beginning to end, 
and we will show them how this case originated!' And the other 
person with him said: 'Yes; and they are going to have a meeting 
to-day, and we will do the same thing!' I want to say I am not afraid 
of them ; I am not afraid of a living soul ; I am not afraid of any 
anarchist in this court or this state and I am prepared to do my duty, 
as I understand it under my oath, and in the presence of Almighty 
God. And they cannot bulldoze me or frighten me in any respect 
I have no right under the law to usurp the functions of a jury. 
I have no right to pass upon any question of fact. I have a right to 
instruct the jury on questions of law, and it is their duty, under their 



THE YOUMANS BANK CASE 193 

The trial judge however directed a verdict for the 
defendants, and an appeal was taken to the Supreme 
Court. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment. 

The case indeed was a clear one. All of the material 
facts were admitted by Mr. Youmans himself, and his 
only justification was that "it was a bankers' trick." It 
must be apparent to all that there can be no conspiracy 
to do that which is lawful and what the law requires to 
be done, and that the Banking Board would have been 
remiss in its duty if it had allowed the bank to remain 
open. Soon after the decision of the Supreme Court, 
however, three of its judges were defeated at the polls, 
and three Non-partisan judges were elected. The deci- 
sion was handed down during the latter part of Novem- 
ber. Under the rules of the court twenty days are allowed 
for the filing of a petition for a rehearing, and if such 
petition is not filed or when filed is denied, the decision 
becomes final. The twenty days would not expire until the 
middle of the month of December. If the three new judges 
took their seats on the first day of December, they could 
pass upon the petition for a rehearing. If not, the old 
judges would then render final decision in the case. Never 
in the history of the state had newly elected judges taken 
their seats until the January following an election, and 
every prominent lawyer understood the constitution so to 
provide. The three new judges, however, came down to 
the capital and demanded their seats on the first day of 
December. The three old judges refused to vacate their 
seats. The matter was of great importance, for not only 
the Youmans case but every decision rendered during the 

oaths, to accept the law as given by me, and I state to you, gentlemen 
of the jury, that in my opinion the plaintiff has wholly failed to make 
a case, that there is no evidence or question of fact to be submitted to 
you, and I instruct you to find a verdict in favor of the defendants 
and will ask one of the jurors to sign the verdict." 



i 9 4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

month of December was involved, and one of the three 
new judges had publicly asserted that if they did not 
obtain their seats by December first, he and his associates 
would later refuse to recognize any decision of the old 
court which was rendered during the disputed month. 
The situation was one which in Mexico and the Central 
American states would probably have resulted in civil 
war. There were fears that it might result in a riot even 
in North Dakota. There had to be some constitutional 
and legal solution, for the only alternative was barri- 
caded doors and perhaps the machine gun. Three judges 
supported, by a victory-flushed electorate, were marching 
up the hill three judges with nothing behind them but the 
minority and the law were refusing to give up their seats ; 
the two other supreme court judges were powerless to 
transact business by themselves. They were determined, 
however, that the law and not force or political intimida- 
tion should prevail. 

The attorney-general, Henry Linde, was called upon, 
and fortunately he was not a Non-partisan. He filed a 
petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the sovereign 
people of the state. In that petition he stated that there 
was a dispute over the membership of the Supreme Court 
during the month of December, and that the people of 
the state wished the matter decided. He stated that it 
was of great importance to all that the law should be 
properly administered, and that the decisions handed 
down during the month in dispute should be valid and 
binding. 

But who constituted the Supreme Court? Who could 
pass upon the question? The three judges whose seats 
were being contested were certainly disqualified and could 
not sit. The three claimants were manifestly disqualified 
though Mr. Robinson insisted that they were not and 



THE YOUMANS BANK CASE 195 

that they could sit in judgment in their own case. Later 
one of them, Mr. Justice Robinson, actually did so. 

The constitution provided that if at any time a supreme 
court justice was disqualified, a district judge could be 
called to sit in his place. One by one the sitting judges 
stated their disqualifications, and a district judge was 
called in. This continued until a complete bench of five 
district judges had been obtained. An entire new bench 
was necessary, for even the two hold-over judges were 
themselves morally disqualified, because the determination 
of the question whether the term of office expired in 
December or in January would later affect them also. 
It at first had appeared as if there was no supreme 
tribunal in the state, and that force must prevail. The 
state had come to the jumping-off place of government. 
The dilemma, however, was met by this means : 

Orders to show cause were served on all of the judges, 
both on the old members and on the claimants, and the 
case was set for argument. 

The three claimants stated that they would not recog- 
nize the jurisdiction of the new court, and served notices 
on the district judges, ordering them not to sit under 
penalty of their displeasure. Two of the claimants did 
not appear at the trial at all. The other, James Robin- 
son, appeared merely to question the jurisdiction of the 
court, though he lost his temper and entered into a full 
argument on the merits of the case. They all termed the 
court "a Kangaroo Court." The writer, who was one of 
the hold-over judges, sought to bring about as peaceful a 
solution as possible, and suggested to William Langer, 
attorney for the claimants, that if any one questioned the 
impartiality of any of the district judges, others would be 
called in; and he urged an amicable settlement of the con- 
troversy. William Langer had himself been recently 



196 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

elected attorney-general by the votes of the League, 
though he did not claim that he was entitled to take his 
office until January, 19 17. 

He said that he would consult higher authority. The 
higher authority was Mr. William Lemke. Lemke re- 
plied, "We won't submit to this or any other court! We 
have twenty thousand majority." 

The improvised court, however, sat. It decided in 
favor of the old members, and the supreme tribunal as 
formerly constituted sat during the month of December 
and passed upon the petition for a rehearing in the You- 
mans case, which it promptly and properly denied. 

But the question still remained whether the three claim- 
ants would yield to the decision, and whether, when they 
took their offices in January, they would recognize any- 
thing that their predecessors had done in December. A 
few days later, therefore, at a banquet which was held 
for the purpose of stimulating interest in the war and at 
which many of the leaders of both factions were present, 
the writer decided to force the issue. He had been called 
upon to respond to a toast. He spoke of the fact that in 
Europe we were fighting for a government by law among 
nations. He stated that we must preserve that govern- 
ment at home. He referred to the recent case in the 
state of North Dakota, and to the threats of the new 
judges. He quoted the threat of the politician who had 
stated that "his faction had twenty thousand majority." 
He then, in all confidence, turned to Governor Frazier and 
said, "But, Governor, twenty thousand or one hundred 
thousand, I am of the opinion that the sense of law, and 
order, and good government is still strong in North Da- 
kota, and that no man will dare disobey the decision of 
that court." 

It was perhaps a bold statement, but the speaker was 



THE YOUMANS BANK CASE 197 

justified in making it. For though they have temporized 
and excused and vacillated, the three new judges have not 
as yet undone that which was done by the old court in the 
month of December, 19 16. 

They did, however, allow three other petitions for re- 
hearings to be filed, and at least two to be argued. Two 
of these petitions were in the Youmans case, and the other 
was in a case which involved the same question of juris- 
diction during the month of December. 

On the first of these petitions four district judges were 
again called in, but Mr. Justice Robinson again insisted on 
sitting as a judge in his own case. After the argument the 
four district judges again decided against Mr. Youmans 
and against the contention of the three Non-partisan 
judges. This should have been sufficient, but a third peti- 
tion was later filed, and the array of counsel for the 
appellants was strengthened by the name of William 
Lemke, as special counsel. Mr. Lemke was then not only 
a prominent leader of the Non-partisan League, but chair- 
man of the State Republican Committee which the League 
had captured. He was employed no doubt to impress the 
writer, whose term of office was about to expire, that the 
primary elections were near and that an adverse decision 
might not be conducive to victory at the polls. Against 
the protest of the two older judges, this petition was al- 
lowed to be filed, and was allowed to remain in the court 
for nearly two years. Finally Mr. Justice Birdzell con- 
sented to join in its denial. Mr. Justice Robinson and 
Mr. Justice Grace dissented. 

The petition of course should never have been filed. 
The old rule seems to have been that a final judgment and 
the sending down of the final order or remittitur by the 
Supreme Court ended the lawsuit. The new Non-partisan 
rule seems to be that there is no such thing as a final 



198 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

judgment, and that every man's title and right to property 
is subject to the possibility of a change in the personnel 
of the appellate court, and to the chance that some lawyer 
or litigant may make the new court believe that, at some 
period in the proceedings or in some step in the chain of 
title, a jury had been misinformed or an erroneous judg- 
ment had been rendered. 

We have elsewhere referred to the so-called Regents 
Case, and to the travesty of the Scandinavian-American 
Bank decision. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING AND THE REVOLUTION 
WITHIN THE REVOLUTION 

Just as the autocracy of the old McKenzie regime was 
sooner or later bound to bring about a revolt, so was that 
of the new socialist hierarchy. A. C. Townley can brook 
no rivals, and in the new West all consider themselves 
worthy of leadership, and there are and always will be 
many who aspire thereto. 

Perhaps the first rebel was M. P. Johnson, who for- 
merly had been prominent in the affairs of the Society of 
Equity, and who soon became distrustful of the new move- 
ment, which in its beginnings at any rate, was only seeking 
to do in another form that which the society was already 
accomplishing. 

The next rebel was Theodore Nelson, who also had 
been prominent in Equity circles. It was he who early 
organized the so-called Independent Voters' League 
which has since served as a nucleus for the opposition. 

Both Johnson and Nelson believed in cooperation. 
They did not, however, believe in socialism, and above 
all they repudiated the lawlessness and autocracy of the 
new leaders. Indeed from the beginning, the Society of 
Equity has at heart been opposed to Townleyism, and 
although its cooperative exchange was early forced into 
a declaration of allegiance by the threat that its elevator 
would be boycotted by the farmers, the leaders of the 
society as a whole have always asserted that cooperation 

199 



200 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

rather than state-ownership would furnish the solution 
of the difficulties in the grain trade, and to-day even the 
cooperative exchange is growing restless. 1 

Next, a so-called Good-government League was or- 
ganized, which sought to achieve success by means of edu- 
cational propaganda. This organization was headed, if 
not officered, by so-called u old liners," many of whom had 
long since lost their influence over the voters. It there- 
fore accomplished but little and had soon to be abandoned 
on account of lack of support. 

The real revolt against the League's hierarchy came in 
19 19, when the attorney-general, William Langer, the 
state auditor, Carl Kositzky, and the secretary of state, 
Thomas Hall, raised the standard of revolt. All of these 
men had formerly been members of the League and had 
been elected by its suffrage. Even since their rebellion 
they have never claimed to be opposed to the organization 
as an organization, nor have they at any time renounced 
their allegiance to its original industrial program. Their 
opposition was clearly stated by William Langer in a 
number of public addresses in which he said : 

"A few years ago North Dakota wanted certain defi- 
nite specific reforms. We wanted state-owned elevators, 
mills and packing-plants and better marketing conditions, 
and in addition certain better tax reforms. 

"We all got together, paid our money and signed the 
same agreement. An executive committee of five men 
appointed themselves and every time we signed an agree- 
ment these five men's names were at the head of it — 

1 In Minnesota the hostility of the friends of the Society of Equity 
had much to do with the defeat of the Non-partisan candidate for gov- 
ernor at the November, 1920, elections; while in the Wisconsin pri- 
mary the Society had an active candidate of its own in the field. In South 
Dakota also the Society has never been friendly to the new movement, 
and its most active officer, former Congressman J. E. Kelly, has per- 
sistently urged cooperation rather than state-ownership. 



THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING 201 

A. C. Townley, F. B. Wood, O. S. Evans and E. A. 
Bowman. 

"We went out over the state and told the farmers 
what we would do when we were elected; we went to 
Bismarck and had control of all the executive offices, the 
house, and lacked one vote in the senate. 

"But three men, Townley and Wood, realizing the 
tremendous political power of the 'North Dakota Leader' 
and other league papers met secretly and ran things to 
suit themselves. They were able to start the socialization 
of the state. 

"It was impossible to get these men out of the execu- 
tive offices because under the constitution which they 
themselves had framed for the Non-partisan League, they 
themselves met as the executive committee to re-elect 
themselves as successors to themselves. 

"We, you and I, still have a chance to see our hopes 
come true. We still have a chance to get our experi- 
ment in state-owned mills, elevators and packing plants. 
And if elected governor I will do all in my power to see 
that we get a reasonable experiment and not an extrava- 
gant expenditure of $17,000,000. 

"There never was a more harmonious convention than 
that at Minot. Farmers, lawyers, book-keepers, clerks, 
railroad men, bankers, stenographers, plumbers, me- 
chanics, met and named men from among themselves as 
delegates. They met and they adopted as planks in the 
Republican state platform, every single feature which you 
farmers wanted that was in the original Non-partisan 
program. 

"But, they didn't endorse Neil Macdonald in a fight 
against Minnie Nielson; they didn't endorse a bank which 
is run as a private institution for the benefit of the 
friends of Waters, Cathro, Townley and Frazier. They 



202 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

didn't endorse a state sheriff law that adds another ex- 
pensive officer to the state payroll and deprives your 
county sheriffs of their powers; they didn't endorse an 
absent voters law that would let a crooked bunch go out 
and buy votes three weeks in advance of election, buy 
enough until they had the election cinched; they didn't 
endorse free love, or the I. W. W. ; they didn't endorse 
a law which will let a smelling committee come to your 
home and look over your personal books or read or even 
make public your love letters which your wife has saved; 
and furthermore they didn't endorse the flying of the red 
flag of socialists or the black flag of anarchy. 

"Republicanism is not Townleyism. It is Americanism, 
and it doesn't stand for the pardoning of Kate Richards 
O'Hare. It does stand for the things you thought you 
would get but didn't. 

"I say to you, fellow citizens of North Dakota, that 
if I am elected governor, that before the sun sets on the 
first day I am in office I will see that there is a commit- 
tee appointed to investigate the Bank of North Dakota. 

"I want to know; I want to find out why farmers in 
North Dakota could not get loans from the State Bank 
when a man in St. Paul got $50,000 of your money. I 
want to find out why a friend of Jim Waters living in 
Wisconsin got $20,000; why Ray McKaig, who is in 
Idaho working for Townley, got $7,500 on land which 
the assessor stated was only worth that amount at its 
fullest value. I want to find out about all these things. 

"I want to find out why the farmers could not cash 
their hail insurance warrants when this money was being 
handed out." I will make this pledge to you that if I 
find anything crooked in the State Bank of North Dakota, 
every man responsible for it will go to the penitentiary! 

"Another thing I will do will be to write to Woodrow 



THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING 203 

Wilson and in that letter I will say 'Mr. President, a 
few months ago the former governor of North Dakota 
wrote you a letter asking you to pardon Kate Richards 
O'Hare. You pardoned her. I wish to tell you that 
the people of North Dakota do not thank you for hav- 
ing pardoned her.' 

"In these ten days a great horde of socialists — men 
gathered from all corners of the world — are coming into 
North Dakota to tell you people how you shall vote in 
your election. 

"They are coming to tell you men and women of the 
farms, you workers, you business men and women, you 
professional men and women, what you should do with 
your own ballot on election day. These men have no 
interest in North Dakota. 

"As I have often stated when I speak of the Non- 
partisan league I do not refer to the farmers, but I re- 
fer to the three men who own it; the three men who 
absolutely dictate the activities; the three men who have 
been advised and counseled by Kate Richards O'Hare, 
David Coates, Walter Thomas Mills, Eugene V. Debs, 
Spurgeon O'Dell, Max Eastman, Karl Marx and all the 
radicals and extremists of the United States. 

"If you believe in socialism, that is your privilege. 
However, I do not propose to sit idly by and see this 
state operated and dictated to by men such as control 
the league which the farmer joined in order to secure 
those things which he desired, and under the guise of 
a farmers' movement passed laws that have wrecked the 
credit of the state, thrown the state in chaos, and which 
have permitted them to have an unchecked use of state 
funds and control the educational system. 

"I don't know how you feel about it, but I don't want 
my little girl going to school and reading or studying 



20 4 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

from books either written or approved by such people 
as Walter Thomas Mills or Kate Richards O'Hare. 

"The time has come for the people of North Dakota 
to decide whether the seat of government of North 
Dakota shall be brought back to Bismarck from St. Paul 
and whether the people or Townley shall rule. The peo- 
ple must decide whether a state official under a solemn 
oath to serve the people must be the abject tool of Town- 
ley or be sacrificed. 

"More than a year ago I dedicated myself to the de- 
feat of Townley and his ring of imported politicians. 
My tours through the state and the petitions of thou- 
sands of farmers and others have convinced me that 
the fight can best be continued by my becoming a candi- 
date for governor at this time. 

"I stand to-day as a candidate for governor, advocat- 
ing the same things I did three years ago and one year 
ago. Among them : 

"Rural-credit banks operated at cost. 

"State-owned flour mills and terminal elevators under 
a non-political expert management and limited to reason- 
able expenditures. 

"A more practical and efficient hail insurance law. 

"An extensive system of irrigation in western North 
Dakota. 

"Protection of legitimate private interests. 

"Increased salaries for teachers and better school con- 
ditions, 

"Reduction of high cost of living. 

"A square deal for the laborer, the farmer, the busi- 
ness and professional man. 

"Decentralization of the executive power now lodged 
in the hands of the governor. 



THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING 205 

"Independent and impartial audit of the state 
industries. 

"Such assistance to returned service men by bonus and 
otherwise as will express to them the gratitude of a 
grateful state. 

"State assistance to cooperate enterprises. 

"Farmer representation on all boards. 

"Protection of the farmer and his property from the 
I. W. W. 

"Protection of the people from the profiteer. 

"Whole-time health officer residing at the capital. 

"Return of powers to the state superintendent of 
instruction. 

"Impartial enforcement of laws. 

"Lower taxes. 

"Freedom of speech. 

"Government of North Dakota by North Dakota men 
and women. 

"Three years ago when a candidate for attorney-gen- 
eral, I publicly pledged my best efforts to serve all of 
the people of the state. That pledge I have kept. I 
have been the attorney-general for all of the people and 
have not permitted myself to become the chattel, rub- 
ber stamp, plaything or tool of A. C. Townley, or any 
other political boss. 

"I have honestly used my utmost endeavor to carry 
out the platform upon which I was elected. On the other 
hand Townley has made no honest effort to carry out 
that program but has acted at all times from selfish 
motives and has built up a personal political machine, 
which is controlled absolutely by him, and which not 
only extends to the newspapers and banks which he has 
organized, but extends into the very legislative halls 
of the state, and even controls many state officials." 



206 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Of all these charges, perhaps those in regard to mis- 
management and excessive taxation had the greatest 
effect upon the voters. And perhaps the greatest mis- 
take that was made by the League, was the refusal of 
its officials to allow the State Auditor to examine the 
books and accounts of the State Bank of North Dakota, 
and of the Scandinavian Bank at Fargo. The latter in- 
stitution had large dealings with the Bank of North Da- 
kota and for a time was closed by the State Board of Bank 
Examiners on account of excessive and unlawful loans 
and on account of the fact that among its assets were 
a number of post-dated checks, which were given by the 
farmers for membership in the League and many of 
which were charged to have been carried by the Bank of 
North Dakota itself. Even if as a matter of law the 
bank officials were acting within their legal rights in re- 
fusing this examination and the statute limited the ex- 
press powers of examination of the State Auditor to cer- 
tain specified institutions and offices, and the banks in 
question were not among them, it certainly was a po- 
litical mistake to refuse the state's financial officer per- 
mission to examine the books of a great state-owned 
bank in the conduct and solvency of which all of the 
people of North Dakota were vitally interested. 

In considering the question of excessive taxation, al- 
lowance should of course be made, and perhaps, has not 
been generally made by the opposition, for the largely 
increased cost in materials and services which have fol- 
lowed the war. There can be no doubt, however, that 
the desire to give jobs to the faithful, materially added 
to the pay-rolls of the state, and that much of the in- 
crease in taxation was not only due to this cause, but 
to the fact that numerous expensive state commissions 
had been created, which had to be manned and provided 



THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING 207 

for, and that provision had to be made for the payment 
of the interest on the bonds of various state industrial 
enterprises, which for many years could not possibly do 
more than pay expenses, and many of which perhaps 
might fail entirely. The overhead expenses of the 
state government at any rate increased so largely 
that F. E. Packard, a former member of the Tax 
Commission, and later an assistant attorney-general 
of the state, estimated that even after the tax levy of 
19 19 there was a deficit of some $740,908.00, although 
the tax levy showed an increase of 64.99 P er cent over the 
levy for the year 19 15. Not only was this the case, but 
the tax on farm lands was in many instances trebled, and 
in some, even quadrupled. This large land tax was of 
course partly due to the single-tax measures that had 
been adopted, and which sought to place the burden of 
taxation upon the land and largely to exempt the im- 
provements. It is very clear, however, that the exemp- 
tion of the improvements in most instances 'benefited 
the farmers but little, as North Dakota is largely de- 
voted to grain raising and the value of the personal 
property and improvements on the average farm is but 
small. In many parts of the state, even machinery sheds 
are practically unknown. It is a noticeable fact, also, 
that the taxes on the railway companies were but slightly 
raised, and though the writer has always been of the 
opinion that the railroads of North Dakota have for 
many years been over-assessed, and have paid more than 
their legitimate share of the cost of government, a re- 
duction of these taxes, or favoritism to the companies 
in any way, would hardly prove popular among an in- 
surgent people whose leaders were persistently denounc- 
ing "Big Business" in all of its forms. 

All of these facts are conclusively proved by the re- 



208 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

ports of the League's own tax commissioner, George 
Wallace. These reports show that while in 19 17 farm 
lands paid 51.418 per cent of the total taxes of the state, 
they, in 19 19, paid 70.36 per cent; that while the rail- 
roads in 19 1 8 paid 19.297 per cent of the total, they, in 
19 19, paid only 14.343 per cent. 

We have before intimated that much of the increase 
in taxation was due, and no doubt necessarily due, to the 
increased cost of materials and personal services of all 
kinds. But this does not account for the fact that al- 
though the state levies for 19 19 were probably three 
times as large as those for 19 18, the taxes which were 
raised for county purposes were only 43 per cent greater, 
and if it had not been for a large expenditure for county 
roads, would probably have showed an increase of only 
13 per cent. Added to all this was an increased state 
bonded indebtedness of $17,000,000. 

North Dakota has a population of only 650,000 people 
and its taxation for the purposes of government should 
be comparatively light. The taxes which were raised 
by the Non-partisan administration for all purposes in 
19 19 reached the enormous total of $33,289,457.02 or 
a tax of $51.21 on every man, woman and child within 
the state. 2 In 191 8 and before the League assumed 

a The taxes raised in 1919, together with the final disposition, are 
as follows: 

Total state $ 3,742,616.08 

Total county 7,952,002.20 

Total township 2,985,308.21 

Total school 11,215,219.25 

City, town or village 2,324,658.76 

Total general 28,219,804.50 

3c flat hail 857,560.19 

Indemnity acreage 3,102,087.75 

Special assess, (city) 1,007,200.69 

Special assess, (county) 102,803.98 

Grand total ? $33,289,457.02 



THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING 209 

complete control the state tax was $1,772,622.91. In 
1919 it was $3, 742, 616. 08. 2 

Coupled with these charges of overtaxation and of 
mismanagement were charges that though reduced in- 
terest rates had been promised to the farmer and though 
the Board of University and School Lands, which had the 
control of the school fund and the funds derived from 
the federal land grants, only charged 5 per cent on its 
loans and the Federal Loan Bank only 5^ per cent, the 
Bank of North Dakota, from which so much was ex- 
pected, not only exacted 6 per cent, but a bonus of $5.00 
a thousand which had to be sent with each application 
and was kept by the bank whether the loan was approved 
or not. 

Complaint was also made that the Bank of North 
Dakota imposed an indirect tax upon every tax payer 
of the state by demanding a deposit with it of all state, 
county, and township funds, for which it only paid 2 per 
cent interest on balances, while the bank itself reloaned 
the money to local banks and received 4 per cent therefor. 
It was also charged that the bank made large loans to 
favored persons outside of the state and that loans even 
had been made to some of the League's favorites to aid 
them in their private enterprises. It was also charged, 
and no doubt with truth, that the bank had materially 
aided in the negotiation of the League's post-dated 
checks. 

These charges should have been met squarely, and 
the refusal to allow the State Auditor to Examine the af- 
fairs of the bank could only create distrust. It is true 
that the bank was made subject to an examination by 
the Bank Examiner, but not only was that examiner an 
appointee of the League, but the statute which conferred 
upon him the power of examination inadvertently, or by 



210 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

the grossest exercise of political trickery, only gave that 
power as to the assets which were actually in the bank, 
and merely required the examiner to see that these assets 
were correctly carried on the books of the institution. 
It gave the examiner no power of investigation as to 
the liabilities of the bank, or even as to the assets which 
were not in its actual possession. 

Added to all this was the fact that as yet the League 
had accomplished nothing save the purchase of one small 
mill for experimental purposes, and the beginning of 
the construction of one large elevator and mill. 

The farmer of North Dakota had been led to believe 
that the high prices of recent years were due to the new 
organization and to the influence of A. C. Townley at 
the national capital, and that these high prices more 
than compensated for what he was compelled to pay in 
the form of increased taxes and voluntary and enforced 
contributions. He was roughly disillusioned, however, 
by Senator A. J. Gronna, himself at this time a Non- 
partisan, who in a public letter said : 

"In order to meet this charge, it appears that Mr. 
Townley has put up a man of straw to knock down. He 
says, and has instructed his speakers to say, that he never 
wired President Wilson to the effect that a maximum 
price of $1.65 on wheat would satisfy the farmers. 

"I have not said that he did send such a telegram. 
What I have said, and what I now repeat is that when 
the senators from the wheat growing states called upon 
the President to request his sanction of the Gore bill, 
fixing the minimum price of wheat at $2.50, we had read 
to us a telegram signed by Townley stating that the 
farmers cheerfully acquiesce in the price prevailing during 
the previous crop year. This telegram defeated the Gore 
bill. The Gore bill was introduced in order to encourage 



THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING 211 

the production of wheat after a series of conferences, 
during which Hoover pointed out the danger of our allies 
due to the shortage of breadstuff. It was agreed that 
production would be encouraged by a guaranteed mini- 
mum price of $2.50, and that no maximum should be 
fixed. The bill passed by two-thirds majority in the 
senate and by a majority in the house. President Wil- 
son declined to sign the bill, and when he was urged by 
senators from the wheat growing states to reconsider 
the bill, he showed us Townley's telegram and said: 

" 'The president of the farmers is opposed to the Gore 
bill and says that the farmers cheerfully acquiesce in the 
fixing of a maximum price on the basis of the prices 
prevailing during the previous crop year.' 

"This is in effect what President Wilson told us. There 
is not and cannot be any mistake about that. Townley's 
telegram did defeat the Gore bill, and its defeat cost the 
farmers of this state millions of dollars." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE NEW REVOLUTION AND THE PRIMARIES OF 192O 

The result of all this was the endorsement by the con- 
servatives of William Langer, Charles Kositzky, and 
Thomas Hall as candidates for the office of governor, 
state auditor, and attorney-general, respectively, at the 
primaries of 1920, and the placing of a general opposi- 
tion ticket in the field. At these elections, though they 
failed to nominate William Langer by a few thousand 
votes, the conservatives carried nearly all the eastern and 
more prosperous counties of the state, and succeeded in 
nominating Kositzky as state auditor, and Hall as secre- 
tary of state, as well as two out of three members of 
congress; John Steen, an old line Republican, as state 
treasurer, and two out of three members of the Rail- 
road Commission. They also succeeded in obtaining 
majorities for A. M. Christianson, their candidates for 
the Supreme Bench and Miss Minnie Nielson, their can- 
didate for state superintendent of public instruction, 
although both of these persons were on so-called non-po- 
litical tickets, and, as there were only two candidates for 
each office, would again have to come before the people 
in the fall election. They nominated enough members of 
the lower house to assure them the control. Dr. E. F. 
Ladd, the former president of the agricultural college, 
was nominated by the Non-partisans as the Republican 
candidate for the United States Senate against the 
present incumbent, Ansel J. Gronna. This, however, 

212 



THE NEW REVOLUTION 213 

was hardly a defeat for the conservative faction, as 
Senator Gronna was himself a member of the League 
and had sought the endorsement of both factions. 

Miss Minnie Nielson received the largest vote of any 
of the conservative candidates. This fact was significant 
as the office of state superintendent of public instruction 
was at that time the only state office for which women 
had a vote. 

The most noticeable feature of this revolt was that 
autocracy, excessive taxation, and mismanagement, were 
the only grounds of attack and the only grounds on which 
a united opposition could be based, and that, though 
the leadership of the League was opposed, its industrial 
program was endorsed. 1 

*In a public address William Langer said: 

"For myself, I say that I stand to-day where I stood three years ago 
and one year ago upon the platform of being unequivocally and whole- 
heartedly in favor of better marketing conditions, in favor of giving 
the farmer every penny he earns, in favor of taking from the Minne- 
apolis Chamber of Commerce and other corporations, any influence 
that they may have either directly or indirectly in the state government. 
I favor now, as I favored at that time, the lowest possible interest 
rate because the lower rate of interest the farmers obtain the more 
prosperity it spells for us all. 

"The platform I published when I announced my candidacy is iden- 
tical with what I believed to be the original League program three 
years ago and one year ago, and I stand squarely upon that. I am op- 
posed now, as then, to inefficiency, incompetency and graft in office, and 
stand for absolute honesty in all affairs. The additional planks in my 
platform beyond the original farmers' program are known to you all and 
surely there is not one of them but that will receive the universal en- 
dorsement of every honest person in the state. 

"We now have the machinery to give the people of this state an 
opportunity to elect delegates and make their choice at a Republican 
state convention, fairly constituted. I will abide by the result of that 
convention. 

"In the fight that is on between now and June 30 every one must be 
either on one side or the other. You either back up a state government 
that to-day favors men like Waters, Frazier, Townley, Hagan, Loftus 
and McDonald and many untried and dangerous experiments which 
were never dreamed of at the time the original League program was 
promulgated, or else you stand with the honest farmers and business 
men of this state, anxious to promote the welfare, happiness and pros- 
perity of this state." 



214 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

When we turn to Minnesota, and it is in North Da- 
kota and Minnesota that the League has its greatest in- 
fluence, we find a seeming victory for the conservatives 
at the primary elections of 1920, but a victory which 
was almost a defeat. In spite of the fact that the League 
failed to nominate its candidate, Henrik Shipstead, 
it seemed to have gained approximately four per cent, in 
membership in the interim between June, 19 19, and June, 
1920, and to have increased its following of 43 per cent, 
of the total vote in 191 8 to 47 per cent, in 1920. 

In 191 8 the Non-partisan organization carried 30 of 
the 86 counties of Minnesota. On June 21, 1920, it car- 
ried 42. In the Republican primaries of 19 18, Gover- 
nor Burnquist was supported by the conservatives, and 
Charles A. Lindbergh was supported by the League. At 
that election, Governor Burnquist received 199,325, and 
Charles A. Lindbergh 1 50,626 votes. Burnquist therefore 
had 57 per cent, of the votes and Lindbergh 43 per cent. 
In the primaries of 1920, J. A. O. Preus, the regular 
Republican nominee, received 44 per cent, and Dr. Henrik 
Shipstead, the Non-partisan candidate, 41 per cent, and 
four other candidates a combined vote of 15 per cent. 
This 15 per cent, however, and the fact that the four 
candidates mentioned belonged to the conservative fac- 
tion, no doubt reduced the Preus majority, and a better 
estimate can therefore be given by comparing the votes 
on the office of lieutenant-governor, for which there were 
only two candidates. For this office Louis L. Collins, the 
regular Republican candidate, received 155,101 votes, 
and George Mallon, the Non-partisan candidate, received 
137,915, or in other words Collins received 57 per cent. 
of the votes and Mallon 43 per cent., and if this vote 
can be taken as test, the League showed a gain of 4 per 
cent, and the Republicans a loss of 4 per cent. It is 



THE NEW REVOLUTION 215 

noticeable, however, that in Minnesota, as well as in 
North Dakota, the League's strength is largely in the 
new, sandy, and sparsely settled counties, and that the 
older, more prosperous, and better-cultivated counties are 
still to be found in the conservative column. 

In Montana the Non-partisans captured the nomina- 
tion for governor in the Democratic primaries, and in 
Colorado and Wisconsin were equally successful in those 
of the Republican party. Otherwise their successes were 
slight, and they gained but little if at all in their legis- 
lative support. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE GENERAL ELECTIONS OF NOVEMBER, 1 9 20 

At the general elections which were held in the fall 
of 1920, the conservative forces were generally success- 
ful, and in spite of the election of Governor Frazier they 
won a victory even in North Dakota. 

In Minnesota the victory was decisive and resulted in 
the election of the regular Republican gubernatorial can- 
didate, Jacob Preus, by a plurality of some 145,000 and 
the election of the remainder of the state ticket includ- 
ing the conservatives' candidate for the supreme bench, 
Homer B. Dibell, by even larger majorities. It also re- 
sulted in reclaiming for the conservatives the control of 
no less than thirty counties which had been carried at the 
primaries by the Non-partisans, and in the complete con- 
trol of both houses of the legislature. This result was 
due to many causes. Chief among them was the fact that 
the women of the state had been enfranchised and these 
women as a class had no tolerance for the League's so- 
cialist doctrines or for its socialist hierarchy. So great 
indeed was the influence of the woman voters in the cam- 
paign that it has been estimated that at least 125,000 of 
the plurality votes should be credited to them. 

Still another cause was the open endorsement by the 
regular Republican leaders and candidates of the policy 
of cooperative marketing, the candid acknowledgment 
of the justice of the complaints of the farmer, and a 
promise on their part to do all that they could do to fur- 

216 



THE GENERAL ELECTIONS OF 1920 217 

ther what may almost be called the Society of Equity's 
plan of a control of the market by means of co-operative 
agencies. In short, it was a campaign of state and na- 
tionally-aided grain and stock and farm producers pooling 
and cooperative marketing agencies against state-owned 
industries, and against state and national socialism. An- 
other reason was the lesson furnished by North Dakota 
of the high rate of taxation and the extravagant expendi- 
tures of money which the League's management and the 
League's policies had entailed. Last, but not least, was 
an extremely efficient campaign of education. 

The loss of Minnesota was of course a bitter blow to 
the Non-partisan cause. It is at Minneapolis, St. Paul 
and Duluth that the hated boards of trade transact 
their business, it is in these cities that the grain of the 
Northwest must always be marketed, it is in them that 
the railroads of the Northwest and especially of the Da- 
kotas converge and have their headquarters. Minnesota, 
too, is a state of great agricultural resources and has 
within its borders the largest iron deposits found within 
the United States and perhaps in the world. 

Much indeed was expected of Minnesota and much 
reliance was placed on the fact that it contained within 
its borders not merely discontented farmers but a large 
number of radical laborers. Not only are there strong 
organizations of the socialists and of the I. W. W. in the 
cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth, and not only 
has Minneapolis at times elected a socialist mayor, but 
it is to these cities that the transient laborers of the 
farms, the lumber camps and the mines of the Northwest 
have always congregated. 

The victory of the conservatives was complete because 
the odds appeared to be against them. Since the defeat 
of their candidate for governor at the primaries, the 



218 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Non-partisans had formed a coalition with a so-called 
Working People's Non-partisan party the formation of 
which had been encouraged by Mr. Townley as a means 
of last resort. The gubernatorial candidate of this party 
withdrew in favor of Henrik Shipstead, the Non-partisan 
candidate, and a united front was thus made possible. 
The Democrats also had candidates in the field and made 
a vigorous campaign, and though the situation was some- 
what neutralized by a Socialist ticket, the members of 
the Socialist party were mainly interested in voting for 
Eugene V. Debs for president, and in Minnesota, as in 
all of the other states of the West, seemed to have gen- 
erally voted the Non-partisan ticket as far as the local 
state ticket was concerned. 

The gods of politics, too, had been fickle and many 
things had transpired between the primaries and the fall 
elections to unite the factions. Not the least of these 
was the imprisonment in Minneapolis of a number of 
labor leaders for the violation of an injunction which 
restrained them from publishing a boycott and otherwise 
intimidating the proprietor of a moving-picture theatre 
who had had the temerity to operate his own machine 
rather than to employ a union operator. The unions 
bitterly resented this action, though it was absolutely 
justifiable and according to the principles of the estab- 
lished law. Processions of laboring-men thronged the 
streets and marched to the courtroom to utter their pro- 
test. In these demonstrations the Non-partisans joined 
and thus gained the friendship of the laboring-men. They 
had also expressed their sympathy for the doctrine of the 
closed shop, which had been the occasion of numerous 
unsuccessful strikes during the year. The Non-partisans 
also obtained many fresh recruits among the farmers on 
account of the sudden drop in the price of grain and other 



THE GENERAL ELECTIONS OF 1920 219 

food products which occurred during the month of Oc- 
tober and which, though due to the high rates of exchange 
which made it possible for the Canadian farmers to sell 
their grain at a profit in the United States even after pay- 
ing the tariff duties, was attributed to the manipulation 
of the market and especially to the machinations of the 
chambers of commerce of Minneapolis and Duluth. 
The fact still remained that even the reduced prices 
were the war prices of over two dollars a bushel and 
with which Mr. Townley, Governor Frazier, and the 
other leaders of the League had declared themselves 
satisfied, but the farmers had a vision of three dollar 
wheat, and where there is a vision discontent usually fol- 
lows when that vision vanishes. 

In Montana, though the Non-partisan faction had 
captured the primaries of the dominant Democratic party 
and had succeeded in nominating their candidate for gov- 
ernor, a coalition of the Republicans and Democrats re- 
sulted in a sweeping conservative victory in the fall 
election. 

In Colorado, where the Non-partisans had captured 
the Republican primaries, the same coalition was formed, 
with the same results. In South Dakota there were 
three parties in the field, the Democratic, the Republican 
and the Non-partisan. The result was a sweeping vic- 
tory for the Republicans, though the Non-partisans seem 
to have taken the second place in the contest. 

In Wisconsin, Blaine the Non-partisan candidate for 
governor was elected. He was, however, perhaps a La 
Follette rather than a Non-partisan candidate and with 
the exception of his election the Non-partisan successes 
were inconsequential. 

We now turn to North Dakota, and throughout this 
book we have dealt chiefly with North Dakota because 



! 

I 



220 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

it is in that state alone that the League has as yet had 
complete control, and it is there alone that it has been 
possible to test results and to judge by works rather than 
by words. 

At the June, 1920, primaries William Langer had 
been defeated by Governor Frazier by about 5,000 votes. 
Though the regular Republican candidates for the offices 
of secretary of state, state auditor and state treasurer 
had been nominated, and the conservative candidates for 
state superintendent of public instruction and justice of 
the supreme court, who in North Dakota are elected on 
a separate ticket on which the two highest at the pri- 
maries have a place, were still to be voted upon at the 
fall elections. In these elections the Non-partisans there- 
fore supported Governor Frazier and the rest of their 
successful nominees on the regular Republican ticket and 
created an independent ticket for the election of their 
candidates for state superintendent of public instruction 
justice of the supreme court, state auditor, and state 
treasurer, and for the election of six district judges. 

The regular republicans or conservatives formed a 
coalition with the Democrats and agreed to support the 
Democratic candidate for governor, J. F. T. O'Connor 
and the Democratic state ticket as a whole with the ex- 
ception of the state auditor, the secretary of state, and 
the state treasurer. Both Republicans and Democrats 
united in supporting Miss Minnie E. Nielson for the 
office of superintendent of public instruction and A. M. 
Christianson as a candidate for re-election to the Su- 
preme Court, as well as six conservative district judges. 

And both the Republicans and Democrats united in 
supporting the various initiated measures to which we 
have before referred, which opened the books of the 
Bank of North Dakota to inspection and safeguarded its 



THE GENERAL ELECTIONS OF 1920 221 

investments, and which no longer made it obligatory on 
the county treasurers to deposit their funds therein; 
which repealed the state sheriff law, restored to Miss 
Minnie Nielson her former powers as superintendent of 
public instruction, repealed the state press law, and the 
law making it a criminal offense to criticise the Non- 
partisans' industrial program, and otherwise repudiated 
the terroristic legislation of the legislative session of 
1919. 

Considering the facts that it was a presidential year, 
that North Dakota is a strong Republican state, and 
that it is always difficult in such years to induce the par- 
tisan to forsake his regular ticket even for one candidate, 
and that the national management is always unwilling 
that he shall do so, the result was surprising. O'Connor, 
the Democratic candidate for governor was defeated 
by only 4,630 votes. The conservatives elected their can- J 
didates for state superintendent of public instruction, ! 
secretary of state, state treasurer, and justice of the 
supreme court as well as four out of the six district judges, 
two members of congress and enough members of the 
legislature to obtain the control of the lower house by 
three or possibly six votes. They lost the control of 
the upper house by only one member. Above all they 
secured the passage of all of their initiated measures. 
The Non-partisans it is true elected their governor, and 
with the exceptions mentioned the remainder of their 
state ticket, but only after the most strenuous of cam- 
paigns and the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of 
dollars. Such a victory was indeed a defeat. It was an 
emphatic vote of lack of confidence. If it had not been 
for the absent-voters' law which made it possible to cor- 
ral votes and the fact that the election was held in a 



222 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

presidential year, it is very doubtful whether there would 
have been any victory at all. 

The initiated anti-Non-partisan measures were carried 
by majorities ranging from 19,231 to 8,i73. 1 Senator 
Harding received 159,211 votes, Governor Cox 37,302, 
Eugene Debs 7,471 votes; Governor Frazier 117,118 
votes and J. F. T. O'Connor 112,483 votes. The votes 
for the conservative candidates for railroad commis- 
sioner, secretary of state, state treasurer, superintendent 
of public instruction and justice of the supreme court 
were about the same as those cast for the initiated 
measures. The two Republican members of Congress 
were elected by a large majority. The majority for Con- 
gressman Young was especially noticeable as he had op- 
posed the Plumb bill which the Non-partisans favored. 
Dr. E. F. Ladd, the Non-partisan candidate for United 
States senator, received the highest vote of all the can- 
didates, his total vote was 130,614 votes against 88,495 
votes for his Democratic opponent. This large vote was 
due to many causes, chief among which were the facts 
that the state is naturally Republican and that Dr. Ladd 
has always been popular. He had done very valuable 
work as a pure food inspector and investigator, and it 
is doubtful that he would ever have joined the Non- 
partisans if the animosity of the enemies that he had 
necessarily made while acting as such inspector had not 
embittered him towards the conservative faction which at 
the time of the formation of the League had the control 
of the state. 

However, the importance to the League of the elec- 
tion of its candidates for governor, attorney-general, 
and state auditor cannot be overestimated. Even though 

x That for the audit of the books of the Bank of North Dakota 
received the largest number. 



THE GENERAL ELECTIONS OF 1920 223 

the conservatives may have the control of the lower 
house, the Non-partisans still have the majority of the 
senate and the governor still retains the appointing 
power. The constitutional provision also makes the 
governor, the superintendent of public instruction, the 
attorney-general and the secretary of state the sole mem- 
bers of the State Board of University and School Lands, 
which is entrusted with the control, appraisement, rental 
and disposal of all school and university lands, including 
the federal land grant, and with the investment of the 
funds derived therefrom. 

It is to this fact that the League's attacks on William 
Langer, the attorney-general, Thomas Hall, the secretary 
of state, Carl Kositzky, the state auditor, and Miss Min- 
nie Nielson may largely be ascribed. It has long been 
the purpose of the League to control the disposition 
of these funds; it has long been its desire to make 
possible their investment in the securities and the bonds 
of the state-owned public utilities. In its proposed new 
constitution, which fortunately failed of adoption by the 
legislature of 19 17, they even went so far as to remove 
United States bonds from the list of securities in which 
these funds could be invested. By the creation of the 
Bank of North Dakota and by requiring all state funds 
to be deposited therein, it made it possible for that 
bank, temporarily at any rate, to invest these funds in 
its favored industries and in loans to favored persons. 
It made it possible for that bank to loan to other 
banks such as the Scandinavian-American Bank of Fargo, 
and for those banks to loan to friends of the League and 
to the League's industries. The State Examiner's report 
of the Fargo bank showed that this had been done to a 
large extent and that among the beneficiaries was the 
so-called sisal trust in which A. C. Townley himself was 



224 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

heavily interested. In the past, however, and while the 
conservatives still controlled the majority of the members 
of the Board of University and School Lands, some check 
could be imposed. That board could see to it that the 
state lands were not sold at a loss in order to gain ready 
funds and that the funds should be speedily invested in 
permanent securities. They could favor United States 
bonds as they did in April, 19 19, when in the absence of 
Governor Frazier they invested $300,000 in the fifth 
liberty loan. 



CHAPTER XXV 

AN ATTEMPT AT A COMPROMISE 

For a time at least, it seemed that the results of the 
election of 1920, together with the panic, or near-panic, 
which the sudden decrease in the price of wheat and 
other farm products which began in the fall of 1920 had 
occasioned, might bring about a compromise between the 
two factions. 

The League's propaganda had been only too success- 
ful, and had been only too implicitly relied upon. Its 
authors had told the farmers that, if they would only 
elect a League ticket, high prices were sure to prevail, 
and that sooner or later they would have a monopoly 
of the markets. The farmers therefore dreamed of 
$3.50 and even of $5.00 a bushel wheat, and of similar 
prices for other farm products. They kept their stock 
from the market, and though, following their usual prac- 
tise, most of them had threshed from the shocks in the 
fields in August and September, they stored their crops 
until the slump in prices, which came with the large 
import of Canadian wheat, and the falling off of the 
foreign demand in the latter part of October. Since 
that time they have generally still refused to sell, and 
have been willing to risk lawsuits and foreclosures, hoping 
that a rise in the market will more than compensate for 
the added interest and court costs which they will be com- 
pelled to pay. It is estimated that on November 1st, 
1920, 80 per cent of the wheat crop of 1920 still re- 

225 



226 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

mained in the farmers' bins, and in the country mills and 
elevators. 

The result was necessarily disastrous to all concerned. 
The banks were unable to make collections, yet in order 
to meet their current expenses, both their farmer deposi- 
tors and their local merchants, who were equally hard 
pressed, and who were in turn carrying the farmers, 
were rapidly withdrawing their deposits. 

Not only were a number of the weaker banks com- 
pelled to close their doors, but the packing house of the 
Society of Equity, which was located at Fargo, found 
itself confronted with a deficit of over $700,000, and 
was compelled to suspend operations. Even the State 
Bank of North Dakota itself became seriously embar- 
rassed, and the further construction of the terminal ele- 
vator and mill at Grand Forks had to be discontinued, 
as well as the operations of the Home Building and Rural 
Credit Board. So far indeed only $60,000 of the 
$2,000,000 bond issue for the construction of the terminal 
elevator had been sold, and the institution had been 
financed almost entirely by the central bank, 1 and even 
that bank was unable to dispose of its $2,000,000 bond 
issue. 

On account of the distrust of the management of the 
state finances, of the state's industrial program, and of 
the administration of the law which prevailed in the 
state, great difficulty at all times had been experienced 
in floating the state bonds and even farm mortgages in 



1 So far no audit had been made of the books of the small mill 
at Drake. However, it had been estimated that this institution had 
been operated at an annual loss of $20,000, and though its manager, 
J. A. McGovern, refused either to affirm or to deny this estimate he 
candidly admitted that the mill had not been and could not be made 
profitable and tendered his resignation. 



AN ATTEMPT AT A COMPROMISE 227 

the eastern markets. 2 The bonds that were sold were 
usually sold to local banks, many of whom had been 

2 There were several reasons for this refusal. Undoubtedly one 
was a desire to bring the state to its economic senses; another was a fear 
of excessive taxation; and still another, and perhaps the most important 
reason, was a growing lack of confidence in the Non-partisan Supreme 
Court. So eccentric, indeed, have been many of that court's decisions 
and actions, so insistent has Mr. Justice Robinson been in publishing 
his views in the newspapers, and so reckless have been the Non- 
partisan members of the court in their criticism and denunciation of 
the established law, and in allowing the re-opening of adjudicated 
cases, that many investors have feared that in North Dakota there 
was no longer any established law, and that therefore there were 
no established titles, and no safe securities for their loans. 

In an address which was delivered before the Bar Association 
of the State of South Dakota on August i, 1918, the author of this 
book had occasion to say: 

"There is nothing more potent than a popular phrase. There is 
nothing more seductive than claptrap. Nowhere are claptrap and the 
popular phrase more dangerous than in the domain of the law, and if 
judicial elections are to be based thereon and to be carried thereby, 
the cause of government by law is doomed. 

"The protest against technicality and a blind following of precedent 
which, when properly understood, has much of merit in it, may, when 
distorted and in the hands of the demagogue, lead to universal anarchy; 
and, incongruous though it may seem, the self-evident truism that all 
law and all government spring from, and are for the people, and that 
the courts are organized to administer justice, may be the instruments 
of the greatest harm. 

"Crimes, indeed, have been committed not only in the name of 
liberty but in that of justice. What is justice? What is technicality? 
Since government is of the people and by the people and the jury rep- 
resents the sovereign people, should the jury be in all things supreme? 
These questions must be met and their import understood, for already 
judicial elections are being based on them, and if the populistic-socialistic 
movement, which is now spreading over the west, spreads to the densely 
populated centers, as it undoubtedly will, for the farmer has already 
combined with the labor union, and in the West the cry of government 
for the farmer and the laboring-man has already moved mountains, 
they will be everywhere before us. 

"Mr. Justice Robinson, of North Dakota, asserts that justice is ever 
present that it knows no stare decisis or fixed rules of law, no precedent, 
no res adjudicata, no established law. Every case, he says, is to be 
decided on its merits; written opinions are but a waste of printer's 
ink; syllabi but encumber the record. Whenever, too, he claims, it 
is made to appear to a beneficent judge (and when the farmers are 
enthroned only such will be elected) that a mistrial has been had, 
a new trial may be ordered by the Supreme Court, and this even 
after the lapse of many years, for, if justice has not been done, why 
then, justice must prevail ! Why follow, he says, the precedents and the 
rulings of the corrupt judges of the past (and to him all of the judges 
of the past have been tools of the corporations and fundamentally 



228 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

intimidated into making the purchases. Now, however, 
the bonds could not be sold at all, and if the state indus- 
tries were to be financed, they had to be financed from 
the deposits in the Bank of North Dakota. But the re- 
cently initiated laws had repealed the statute which made 
it obligatory upon the county treasurers to deposit their 
funds in the central institution, and as the local demands 
became greater and greater, the county treasurers soon 
refused to do so. Soon, indeed, not only the solvency 
of many of the local banks and of the state industrial 
institutions became seriously questioned, but even that of 
the Bank of North Dakota itself. 

On December 3, 1920, the reported assets of the Bank 

corrupt) when God has given to the present moment unlimited wisdom? 
If a jury, too, finds negligence when, in fact, none can exist, or returns 
a verdict for one hundred thousand dollars for a mere bruise in a 
personal injury suit, why should the courts interfere, for does not the 
jury represent the people, and is not the jury supreme? 

"And how catching, how plausible, is this doctrine! How irre- 
sistible, in these days of primary elections, is the candidate for the 
bench who will subscribe thereto! Already, indeed, such men have 
carried with them the electorates of sovereign states; buncombe has 
moved mountains; and buncombe has been irresistible! 

"But if no case is ever settled or finally decided, what security is 
there to life or property? If an action to quiet title to one's farm or 
one's cottage is brought to-day, but ten years afterwards, it being made 
to appear (in or off the record) to some beneficent judicial despot that 
the lawyer who tried the case talked too much or that the case could 
have been better tried, a new action may be ordered. If, indeed, we 
are to have a judicial despotism and not a government by law; if, indeed, 
there is no such thing as an established title and no such thing as a 
conclusive judgment; if justice, as personally and judicially seen, is the 
only element; what will become of property rights? Litigation, it is 
true, and lawyers will flourish, the judicial despot may exude sophis- 
tries and the governmental theorists and the sans cullottes will applaud, 
but what of industry, what of property, what of prosperity, what of 
liberty? If, as Mr. Justice Robinson and the yellow journals and the 
friends of the people say, there are to be no precedents and the decisions 
of the past are not only to have no binding effect, but even no 
persuasive force or effect, how shall business be conducted, and 
how shall lawyers advise their clients? The good lawyer, indeed, will 
not be he who knows the law, but he who is intimate enough to play 
chess with the judge, or can do as some are doing in North Dakota 
even to-day, and that is hurry to the seat of government and ask the 
judicial despot how he will decide the case in advance of the liti- 



AN ATTEMPT AT A COMPROMISE 229 

of North Dakota were $18,830,000 and its liabilities 
$16,650,000. Of these assets however $2,599,069 was 
invested in thirty-year farm loans, $1,951,450 in the 
unsold state bonds which had been authorized for the 
capitalization of the bank, $648,394.50 in deposits or 
loans to some thirty small state banks which the recent 
financial stringency had forced to suspend operations, 
$650,000 in loans to the state-owned mill and elevator 
at Grand Forks which was unable to carry on its build- 
ing operations on account of its inability to float its 
bonds, and $225,000 in loans to the Home Building As- 
sociation which also was unable to float its securities and 
has also suspended operations. None of these assets 
were liquid assets. 

gation. In the past we had government and life and liberty and prop- 
erty at the whim and caprice of insane kings, now we are to have a 
government by equally insane judicial despots. There is to be no law 
merchant, no established rules of public or private conduct. Whether 
a lawyer's advice is sound or not depends upon whether or not he is 
'in tune with the Infinite' and whether his wireless apparatus can catch 
the vibrations of the infinite mind and the wisdom of an infallible 
judge. 

"How seductive, how vote-catching, is this all ! How seductive, 
also, is Mr. Justice Robinson's other contention that, since a judge owes 
his election to the people and ours is a government by the people, it is 
perfectly proper and fitting for him to take them into his confidence 
and to discuss pending and prospective cases, yes, even to publish his 
alleged opinions in advance in the press in relation thereto, even before 
they had been argued and presented to the court, and by this means and 
by the force of popular opinion to force the other members of the bench 
to reach a decision similar to his own! 

"How popular, too, and seductive, is the idea that the verdict of a jury 
should be supreme, for there is 'no doubt that we are the people and our 
throne is above the king's!' How seductive, but how absurd! If, 
indeed, every verdict must stand, who would employ labor, who would 
remain in business, who would even own land? Legal rights and the 
right to property and to liberty would depend upon popularity and not on 
law or on justice, and farms would be taken away under executions 
because a domestic had burned her finger, and men would be hanged 
because they had no friends. We have struggled against tyranny during 
the centuries, but the mob and the majority may be as tyrannical as the 
kings. We have striven to build up a legal system under which even 
the friendless may be judged by and appeal to a general and to an 
impartial law. Now popularity must be everything and the majority 
must prevail." 



230 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Something had to be done, and that something by the 
bankers and business men of North Dakota, as well as by 
the League managers, for the failure of the Bank of 
North Dakota, and a condition of general state insolvency 
would ruin the banker and the business man, as well as 
the farmer. All classes were interested in preserving 
the good name and the credit of the state, and all classes 
felt justified in doing so, for the wheat was in the gran- 
aries and the cattle were on the farms, and though the 
reckless extravagance of the League, and the refusal ot 
the farmers to sell had produced a financial stringency, 
the wealth of the state was unquestioned, and its re- 
sources had really been untouched. 

The result was a meeting of the Bankers' Association 
of North Dakota, followed by a conference with a num- 
ber of the Non-partisan leaders and the formulation 
of a plan by which the Bankers' Association agreed to 
underwrite the state bonds to an amount necessary to 
complete the elevator and mill at Grand Forks, to op- 
erate this elevator and mill, as well as the mill at Drake, 
to underwrite and aid in selling some $3,000,000 of farm 
mortgages, which were held by the Bank of North Da- 
kota, and as far as possible, not only to save the state 
from financial ruin, but to aid the Non-partisan manage- 
ment in carrying out its industrial experiments. A plan 
was also evolved for aiding the smaller banks, so that 
these banks would neither be compelled to suspend nor to 
enforce immediate payment from their creditors. 

One condition, however, was imposed, and that was 
that the Legislature of 192 1 should not embark the state 
in any new enterprises, and that for the time being, at 
any rate, no . additional state industries should be 
launched. 

At first it appeared that this agreement would be made 



AN ATTEMPT AT A COMPROMISE 231 

and for a time the leaders of the League appeared to 
favor it. With the meeting of the legislature, however, 
a change of front came, and the conservative forces were 
astounded by a recommendation in the Governor's mes- 
sage which advocated the purchase and operation of a 
state-owned lignite coal mine; and later still by a point- 
blank refusal to concede to the bankers' demand that 
the stafe's industrial activities should be confined to those 
institutions which already had been provided for. 

The change of front was no doubt due to the fact 
that the League was not only operating in the agricultural 
state of North Dakota, but in other states where the 
laboring and mining populations were in the ascendency, 
and that the demand for state and nation-owned coal 
mines had become generally popular. They had, indeed, 
decided to inaugurate an industrial system in North 
Dakota which would serve as a model and a vote-catcher 
in other communities. 

Not only was this the case, but on the meeting of 
the legislature, they discovered that they still controlled 
the Senate by one vote, and that in the lower house, the 
Independents had but a small majority of from three to 
six members. They undoubtedly relied upon the selfish- 
ness of cities and localities, and came to believe that by 
promising new industries to certain localities and dis- 
tricts, they could obtain their support, and thus over- 
come the small conservative majority. 

The result was the following letter: 

"Bismarck, North Dakota, 

January 8, 192 1. 
u To the Honorable Committee of Bankers Appointed 
by the Bankers and Bankers' Association of the State to 
Confer with the Administration and Members of the 



2 3 2 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Industrial Commission Relative to the Sale of State 
Bonds : 

"The Industrial Commission has before it for consid- 
eration your communication of the yth insit. reading 
as follows: 

'Bismarck, N. D., Jan. 7, 1921. 
To the Honorable, The Industrial Commission, and The 
Bank of North Dakota : 

'The committee of bankers, invited under date of Dec. 
30, last, to confer with you with a view of devising some 
means of selling available securities and bettering the 
financial situation throughout the state, beg to submit 
the following: 

'Through the numerous conferences of the past month, 
it would appear that the most immediate and important 
question is the sale of the several issues of the state 
bonds now being offered. 

'The bankers of the state have earnestly endeavored to 
assist in the sale of these bonds, but so far without suc- 
cess. The administration has also been unable to sell 
them. 

'The bankers have ascertained the condition under 
which those bonds could now be sold by them, and with 
those conditions before them, make the proposition: 

'The bankers would undertake to sell — 

'$3,000,000 of farm loan bonds, as well as the balance 
of the $10,000,000, as reasonably needed and the mar- 
ket will absorb. 

'$2,000,000 of mill and elevator bonds to complete 
and put in operation the Grand Forks mill and elevator. 

'$250,000 of home building bonds. 

'$1,000,000 of the Bank of North Dakota bonds. 

'To bring this about, it would be necessary on the part 
of the administration — 



AN ATTEMPT AT A COMPROMISE 233 

'To limit the operation of the Bank of North Dakota 
to the administration of state, state institutions, and 
state industry finances, farm loan and farm loan bonds. 

'To procure the enactment of a new depository law for 
counties, townships, school districts, boards of educa- 
tion, village and cities, making every going bank a per- 
manent public depositary, and fixing the rate of interest 
by statute, providing also for publicity as an assurance 
that deposits would be properly distributed. 

'Provide some assurance to the public that the so-called 
farmers' industrial program will be confined to the Grand 
Forks mill and elevator, to the Drake mill, and the Bank 
of North Dakota, and that no state indebtedness other 
than the above be created during the term of the present 
administration. 

'To confer with attorneys for bond buyers at an early 
date, and if any new or 'amendatory legislation, or order 
of the industrial commission is required, to make the 
bonds more readily marketable, to see that it is provided.' 

"Gentlemen: 

"We wish to assure the committee that we appreciate 
the interest it has taken in this matter. The proposition, 
however, cannot honorably be considered by the com- 
mission for the reason that it is a plain attempt on the 
part of the financial interests, presumably Wall Street 
financiers, to dictate the political, financial and industrial 
policies of the State of North Dakota and requiring a 
surrender of the sovereign powers of the state to manage 
its own affairs, and to permit the dictation and interfer- 
ence with the independence and liberty of the free people 
of a sovereign state. The time has not yet arrived when 
any group, no matter how powerful financially, can dic- 
tate to this state how to manage its own affairs. Every 
state in the Union is guaranteed a republican form of 



234 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

government under our constitution. The officers of the 
state, even though elected by the people, have no authority 
to surrender its sovereignty. Rights once surrendered 
are seldom if ever regained. We are satisfied that any 
group of men that would exact such a surrender and arro- 
gate to themselves the prerogative of making the laws 
for the people of the state would rule with a tyrannical 
hand. 

"The bonds of North Dakota can and will be sold with- 
out a surrender or compromise of this nature. We are 
satisfied that your committee did not expect the industrial 
commission to accept the terms and conditions in the 
above communication, submitted. 

"We are positive that in the near future, with your 
cooperation, these bonds will sell readily. There is no 
better security anywhere in the United States. Many 
men of influence and wealth outside of the state are 
seriously considering the purchase of these bonds just 
as soon as the present financial stringency passes." 
"Yours very sincerely, 

The Industrial Commission, 
Lynn Frazier 
Wm. Lemke 
J. N. Hagan" 

In the meantime bank failures were of almost daily oc- 
currence; the drafts of the county treasurers on the Bank 
of North Dakota were being refused payment; and in a 
number of instances the payment of the salaries of the 
country school teachers were several months in arrears. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE FAILURE OF FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT A COMPROMISE. 
THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION OF 1921 

The Legislature convened on January 2nd, 1921. 
Though the Non-partisans controlled the senate by a few 
votes an Independent majority in the lower house made 
it possible for the conservatives to block all further rad- 
ical legislation, to defeat the administration measure for 
a state-owned coal mine, to order a legislative investiga- 
tion of the state's industries and to require the publication 
of and to scrutinize thoroughly the report of the private 
accountants who, under the authority of the initiative of 
1920, had conducted an examination of the affairs of the 
Bank of North Dakota. 

These examinations and this report disclosed the ac- 
tual insolvency of the Bank of North Dakota and of 
the Scandinavian American Bank of Fargo, which had 
been financed by the central bank and which in turn had 
been so largely used in financing the Non-partisan move- 
ment and the Non-partisan industries. They disclosed 
the fact that the Bank of North Dakota had been unable 
to negotiate any of its bonds and had therefore started 
business without any capital, but yet had loaned $900,000 
to numerous state banks which had since been compelled 
to close their doors, $2,800,000 on thirty year farm 
mortgages, and.$i,i35,ooo to the various state industries 
none of which were paying and none of which could for 
a long time be expected to pay their expenses and much 

235 



236 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

less any dividends. Of this sum $700,000 was used in 
the partial construction of the terminal elevator and mill 
at Grand Forks. 1 The investigations also disclosed a 
loan to the Bank of $1,000,000 from a Chicago trust 
company which was secured by the bonds of the Bank 
of North Dakota which hitherto had been unable to 
find a market. In spite of the undoubted insolvency of 
the Scandinavian Bank of Fargo in 1920, they showed 
that the Bank of North Dakota had since redeposited 
$44,127 in the local institution. In addition they dis- 
closed the fact that the central bank was every day dis- 
honoring the drafts of the county treasurers, of the local 
banks and even of the beneficiaries under the hail insur- 
ance law, and that in numerous instances its own accounts 
against the local banks had been garnisheed by its indig- 
nant creditors. The investigations also disclosed the 
complete collapse of the home building enterprise. 2 

Testimony was also introduced of agreements of the 
central bank not only to loan its moneys to favored local 
banks but to take over loans which were made by them 
to favored persons and institutions. It was also testified 
that at the beginning of the war and of the activities of 
the League $50,000 was procured from pro-German rad- 
icals in New York and was used to swell the campaign 
funds of the new organization. 

At this crisis A. C. Townley himself intervened and 
sought to revive the old plan for a compromise and both 
the State Bankers' Association and the bankers of St. 
Paul and Minneapolis appeared for a time to be ready 

1 This loan was secured by the bonds of the terminal elevator but as 
these bonds could not be negotiated the asset was hardly a bankable 
asset. 

2 These disclosures compelled the Non-partisan Bank examiner to 
himself close the doors of the Scandinavian American Bank of Fargo and 
the directors of the League Consumer's Store Corporation to ask for a 
receivership. 



FAILURE OF COMPROMISE 237 

to aid in the attempt. William Lemke however was ob- 
durate and still insisted that the state's industrial bonds 
could be sold and that the initiated measure which had 
repealed the act that required all the state and county 
taxes and moneys to be deposited in the Bank of North 
Dakota could again be submitted to the electorate. 

In this opposition Lemke for a time was supported by 
the Non-partisan caucus, and, though he soon yielded to 
the better judgment of his chief, the opposition and the 
delay served once more to stiffen the backs of the con- 
servatives who now demanded that not only should the 
Bank of North Dakota be sj^orn of its powers and be 
turned in a rural credit agency of the state government, 
and that no more state-owned industries should be pro- 
moted, but that the management and control of all of the 
industries that already had been started should be turned 
over to the conservative faction. 

Of course this latter demand was vigorously refused, 
and soon afterwards the bankers withdrew their offers 
of aid giving as an excuse the unsettled condition of 
North Dakota politics, the fear of the eastern investors, 
whom naturally they would have to call to their aid, and 
the statement that the North Dakota securities had been 
peddled so much in the eastern markets and by so many 
irresponsible persons that all faith in them had been 
destroyed. 

The aid of the bankers being denied, strenuous efforts 
were then made by the Non-partisans to negotiate their 
bonds on their own account and an attempt was made to 
induce the American Federation of Labor to invest there- 
in. All that could be obtained however were resolutions 
of sympathy. Intimidation was next resorted to. Not 
only did the Bank of North Dakota announce that it was 
open for general deposits and would henceforth engage 



23 8 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

in the general banking business but the Non-partisan 
Deputy Bank Examiner notified all of the state banks 
that their affairs would be carefully scrutinized and their 
doors would be closed if at the end of thirty days it was 
discovered that their reserves were below the statutory 
requirement. This notice however could only be a threat 
and rather than tend to induce the bankers to aid in the 
sale of the bonds could only tend to strengthen the oppo- 
sition. The general fall in farm prices and the conse- 
quent unwillingness of the farmers to market their prod- 
ucts had seriously affected North Dakota as well as the 
other agricultural states and, in addition and in many of 
the western and strongly Non-partisan counties, a se- 
ries of crop failures had stretched credit to its ex- 
tremest limit. The banks were doing all that they could 
do, and were carrying not only the farmers but the local 
merchants, who in turn were carrying their farmer cus- 
tomers. Any harsh and unreasonable action on the part 
of the Bank Examiner could only result in forcing the 
banks to collect their accounts and to bring actions on 
their notes and mortgages. If they pressed their mer- 
chant customers these customers would in turn have to 
sue the farmers. The threat could hardly be carried out 
and hardly tended to popularize the Non-partisan man- 
agement with its farmer constituency. It served there- 
fore only to further incense the opposition and was met 
by a threat and a formulated plan for a recall of the 
Non-partisan officials and the initiation of two measures 
one of which would change the personnel of the Indus- 
trial Commission and place the control of all of the state's 
industries out of the hands of the administration, and the 
other of which would transform the Bank of North Da- 
kota into a merely rural-credit agency of the state govern- 
ment. 



FAILURE OF COMPROMISE 239 

To these threats the Non-partisans again countered 
and threatened a recall of all of the conservative public 
officers and thus to turn the conservatives' recall into a 
general election. They also renewed their efforts for the 
sale of their bonds and made personal appeals to the 
labor unions and to all of their friends and supporters 
both to purchase the state's bonds in small denominations 
and to deposit their moneys in the Bank of North Dakota. 
As a means to this end and as a punishment to their 
banker antagonists they also opened the Bank of North 
Dakota as a general bank of deposit and started a move- 
ment for the establishment of branch banks or local 
agencies in all of the principal towns of the state. 

The controlling element in the whole affair was the 
rapidly growing conviction of the Independents that the 
Non-partisan finances were in a hopeless state of col- 
lapse, that if the Non-partisans were only left to their 
own resources and given rope enough they would hang 
themselves, and that no further compromise was neces- 
sary. The conservatives became more and more willing 
to face a present financial crisis rather than any longer 
to tolerate the scheme of state-ownership, and naturally 
the most pronounced in this attitude were the politicians 
who hoped that the collapse would lead to their own re- 
turn to political power. 

In a preceding chapter we told the story of the In- 
surgent or Progressive Republican revolution of 1906 
and of the repudiation of the so-called Alexander Mc- 
Kenzie machine. During the intervening years however 
Alexander McKenzie has been neither dead nor asleep 
and his close connection with Senator Porter J. Mc- 
Cumber, as well as his own national prestige, has at all 
times made it possible for him to control the Republican 
State Central Committee and in a large measure to die- 



240 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

tate the federal patronage. One of the most interesting 
features of the Non-partisan movement, indeed, has been 
the attitude of the McKenzie-McCumber forces, and it is 
by no means inconceivable that Alexander McKenzie may 
again sit in the throne-room of North Dakota. It is 
by no means impossible that the old or so-called Mc- 
Kenzie or stand-pat Republicans may reorganize the 
Republican party of North Dakota and unite with the 
Non-partisans against the Independents or what is now 
termed the Independent Voters' League. There was just 
such a coalition in the campaigns of 191 6 when an inde- 
pendent, Usher L. Burdict, was opposed in the primaries 
both by the Non-partisan Frazier, and the Stalwart Re- 
publican Colonel Fraine, and when in both the primaries 
and the fall elections, though the state gave a handsome 
majority to Woodrow Wilson, it at the same time 
elected the Non-partisan Frazier as its governor and 
the Stalwart Republican McCumber to the United States 
Senate. There can also be no doubt that the defeat of 
Senator Gronna in 1920 was largely due to the same 
influences. 3 

"Perhaps nothing more conclusively shows what may be termed the 
return of McKenzie than an incident which occurred during the legis- 
lative session of 1921. Edward Hughes owns the Bismarck electric 
lighting system and Alexander McCumber owns the waterworks system. 
Protests had been made against the charges of both institutions. Hughes 
at one time broke away from the McKenzie forces and was elected by 
the insurgents to a seat in the state senate. In the legislative session 
of 1921 a bill was introduced which sought to confer upon the city of 
Bismarck the power to condemn the waterworks system. The bill passed 
the lower house but was defeated in the Senate by a coalition of Stalwart 
and Non-partisan votes. In its place another bill was introduced which 
gave to the State Industrial Board the power to extend the electric light- 
ing system of the state capitol so that it could furnish electricity not 
merely to the capitol building as it had formerly done but to the whole 
of the city of Bismarck. This bill was carried through both houses by 
a coalition of the Stalwart and the Non-Partisan forces. It was the 
only measure of state-ownership which was carried at the session and 
its purpose was to punish Hughes and as far as possible drive him out 
of business. 



FAILURE OF COMPROMISE 241 

Much as McKenzie and McCumber dislike the eco- 
nomic policies of the League, much more do they person- 
ally dislike the leaders of the so-called Independent 
Voter's movement, the majority of whom originally were 
insurgents and took a prominent part in the revolution 
of 1906. The leaders of this movement have never been 
forgiven nor have the politicians been forgiven who in 
19 16 joined with Governor Louis B. Hanna in his at- 
tempt to wrest the United States senatorship from Sen- 
ator McCumber. 

But even if this coalition is made we can expect but 
little extension of state ownership or of state socialism. 
McCumber is at heart a conservative of the conservatives 
and what is true of McCumber is true of McKenzie and 
of the whole stalwart following. They have aided the 
Non-partisans, not because they hate the Non-partisans 
and the Socialists the less but because they hate their 
former Progressive Republican opponents still more. 

The people of the state are rapidly coming to their 
senses and ultimately the whole controversy will be set- 
tled along natural lines. There can be no doubt of the 
right of the farmer to organize his buying and his selling 
exchanges and to seek to lessen the profits of the middle- 
man There can be no doubt that our boards of trade 
are now becoming great national and even international 
exchanges and, if seats on the floors of these exchanges 
are not freely given to the farmers' cooperative agencies, 
sooner or later they will everywhere be granted by legis- 
lative action. 4 There can be no doubt that the validity 

4 In the Legislative Session of 1921 the Farmers' program as set forth 
by the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation and the desire of the Repub- 
lican party to cooperate therewith brought the following results: 

Rural credits systems financed by the state proposed in a constitutional 
amendment which voters will pass on in 1922. 

Speculative trading in grain futures curbed by an act declaring deals 
illegal which do not include a legitimate hedging features. 



242 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

of these statutes will be sustained by the American 
courts. 

It is doubtful if the profits of the middleman are pro- 
portionately larger in the agricultural than in the other 
industries. In all lines of production however there is 
a gross and seemingly unnecessary disparity between the 
original and the final cost and there can be no doubt that 
in the future much care and attention and legislation will 
be directed towards bringing the producer and the con- 
sumer closer together and in cutting out the excessive 
costs of the middleman. Already the parcels' post and 
the farmers' cooperative agencies and exchanges have 
done much in this direction although it is doubtful 
whether the consumer has always profited thereby. 

All this, however, has been and is to-day being accom- 
plished without the aid of the Non-partisan League and 
cooperative buying and selling is as far advanced in 
states where the League has no foot-hold as it is in 
North Dakota itself. 

There is at any rate nothing which is radically wrong 
with North Dakota. Its conservative citizens have been 
wonderfully loyal and the rank and file of the Non-par- 
tisan party have merely been misled. The state is un- 

Grain exchanges declared open markets and required to admit co- 
operative associations to membership. 

Law as to cooperative marketing associations amended to help them 
federate and form central selling associations. 

Department of Agriculture given wider powers and various related 
activities transferred to its direction. 

Auditing books of cooperative associations by the state authorized. 

Cold-storage law strengthened, and labels required on cold storage 
products exposed for sale. 

Joint resolution passed to re-establish Minnesota grain grades Aug. i. 

Legislative committee to visit Washington and urge modification of 
federal grain grades; resolution passed by senate and soon to be ap- 
proved by the house. 

Completion of state testing mill at Minneapolis to be authorized, and 
control of mill transferred from Railroad and Warehouse Commission to 
Commissioner of Agriculture. 



FAILURE OF COMPROMISE 243 

usually rich in agricultural resources and in agricultural 
possibilities and can meet all of its obligations. On ac- 
count of a wonderful management, which speaks volumes 
for its business men, there have been proportionately 
fewer business failures in North Dakota during the last 
year than in perhaps any other agricultural state of the 
American union. In North Dakota there has been no 
speculation and no overvaluation of the land, and for 
that reason it will recover from the present financial 
stringency more rapidly than most of its sister states. In 
Iowa and in Illinois, for instance, land which cannot pos- 
sibly have a producing value of over three hundred dol- 
lars an acre has been sold for four and five hundred 
dollars an acre. Land in short has been watered as well 
as corporate stock, and it is perfectly clear that before 
that land can be made to pay dividends and before nor- 
mal conditions can again prevail and the farmer can 
again compete in the world's market that water must 
be squeezed out. In North Dakota, on the other hand, 
there is no land, and some of it is as rich as any in the 
American Union, that has been sold for more than two 
hundred dollars and vast areas have been sold and can 
still be obtained for less than fifty dollars. At these 
prices and in almost any state of the market this land 
can be made to pay dividends. North Dakota has 
merely been upon a debauch. A state which with only 
650,000 people can annually produce over 50,000,000 
bushels of the choicest wheat, to say nothing of its other 
agricultural products, and wheat is after all but a small 
portion of the state's production, cannot well become 
insolvent. 

Banks it is true have closed their doors but in no larger 
numbers than in the other agricultural states of the 
Union. And though they have been compelled to close 



244 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

their doors it has merely been because the farmers have 
chosen to withhold their grain from the market. The 
wheat is there and ultimately both the farmers and the 
banks will pay their debts. They perhaps will not make 
as much profit as in former years but they will not go 
to the poorhouse. Much as we may bicker about the 
matter, the bonds of North Dakota are as good as gold, 
and, even if the state industries fail, the loss will only 
involve a few millions of dollars, not more in fact than 
the cost of Rve or six state elections Above all the loyal 
people of North Dakota have shown that they cannot be 
stampeded. They have faced the nationally entrenched 
forces of socialism and have met the most dangerous of 
all enemies, class-prejudice and misinformation. They 
have stood firm for the American law, the American 
comradeship and the American freedom, and they have 
triumphed. 5 

B Since the above chapter was written the Independents have decided 
to limit the recall to the Governor, the Attorney-General and the Secre- 
tary of Agriculture. Much doubt has been expressed as to the political 
wisdom of any recall at all and whether it would not have been better 
to have allowed the Non-partisans to attempt to extricate themselves from 
their own financial dilemmas and to incur the discredit which a failure 
would entail. Business motives however have prevailed and the political 
argument has been brushed aside by the contention that a complete con- 
trol of the state government by the Independents is absolutely necessary 
in order to reestablish the credit of the state and to make possible the 
obtaining of the outside financial assistance which is so sorely needed. 
A measure also has been initiated for the issuance of two million dollars 
of state bonds which shall be a direct state liability and shall be used 
in completing the construction of the elevator and mill at Grand Forks 
and in meeting the obligations of the Bank of North Dakota. There is, 
however, no intention that in the future that bank shall be anything 
more than a rural-credit agency. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE AFTERMATH THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 

But what of the aftermath? There is no doubt that 
Townleyism is on the wane. But what of the future? 

Except in so far as it advocates state-owned ware- 
houses and elevators, the industrial plan of the Non-par- 
tisan League, as it was originally proposed, was no dif- 
ferent from that of the federated farmers' bureaus of 
to-day, nor that of the National Farmers' Educational 
and Cooperative Union, which for many years had a 
strong following in the southern states. Being sectional 
in its membership, though national in its name, the latter 
organization was able to urge a sectional control of cot- 
ton, which was entirely a southern product. To-day 
the farmers of North Dakota are urging a sectional con- 
trol of the hard wheat of the North, which is so essen- 
tial to the manufacture of the higher grade of flour, and 
the farm bureaus, and grain and stock producers' as- 
sociations of the country are everywhere urging the con- 
trol of the whole food supply. 

A meeting of the National Farmers' Educational and 
Cooperative Union was held at the city of New Or- 
leans in November, 1909. At that meeting night rid- 
ing was denounced, but a complete monopoly and control 
of the cotton crop was strenuously advocated. The plan, 
which was partially carried out, was to build large ware- 
houses in all of the cotton states; to have the cotton 
stored therein, and storage certificates issued thereon, 

245 



246 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

and then to have these certificates negotiated by the va- 
rious southern banks. This, it was hoped, would enable 
cotton planters to hold their products until they could 
obtain such prices as they desired; and as long as the 
banks continued to finance them, to control the market 
completely. This also has been the plan of the Ken- 
tucky tobacco raisers. 

The plan is not different from the North Dakota scheme, 
though the latter scheme is bolder and more comprehen- 
sive, involving, as it does, a state-owned bank in which all 
of the state funds and taxes shall be deposited, and which 
is intended to help finance the enterprise. The reason 
for the southern pool, as given by Mr. C. S. Barrett, 
the president of the Cooperative Union, is exactly the 
reason that is given by the Non-partisan League of North 
Dakota. Mr. Barrett, among other things said : 

"The Farmers' Union is the greatest industrial army 
in the South to-day. With the proper zeal and loyalty we 
can, in our meetings of to-day and to-morrow, rear a 
bulwark of cotton around the South, and from behind its 
walls crush our enemies decisively and finally. 

"I regard the great interest taken in this convention 
by the business men of New Orleans as prophetic of a 
new era in southern development. It is a recognition by 
the banker, the manufacturers and the merchant that 
the farmer furnishes the basis of the wealth of this section, 
and that henceforth he must and will be reckoned with in 
the great and small projects looking to its welfare. 

"I have said that it is to the mutual advantage of all 
southerners to secure a proper price for cotton. We are 
not now securing that price. If this conference does not 
compel improvement, the burden will be visited before 
the first of next September on you, your wives and your 
children. 



THE AFTERMATH 247 

"There are several reasons contributory to the present 
unfair price for cotton, but the main one is very ancient 
and familiar — the plots and schemes of the market manip- 
ulators. Beginning with last spring and continuing to 
the present day, bear gamblers in this country and Europe 
circulated circumstantial reports to the effect that the 
south would produce a record-breaking crop of cotton 
this fall. These reports never have rested and do not 
now rest upon the slightest foundation, save those of 
wilful and malicious misrepresentation. 

"That has not prevented them from doing their deadly 
work. The impression has gained ground with buyers in 
America and Europe that this season would show an ab- 
normal yield. They have refused to believe the truth 
of the situation, when told by our officials, and in some 
instances by their own investigators. I do not hesitate to 
say that some of the spinners are our friends, and will deal 
fairly with us. But the majority are ready to plot with 
the gamblers to beat down the figure they pay for cotton, 
though they are not kind enough to lower the price at 
which they sell you cloth and other finished products 
made from the staple grown in your own fields. 

"Having hammered down the price of cotton at the 
opening of the selling season, our friends, the gamblers 
and manipulators, see no reason why they should let it 
rise, even when it is shown to them beyond question that 
reports of a large crop are utterly absurd. And they will 
not recede from this position unless you, the men who own 
the cotton, whose labor has made their schemes possible, 
with the aid of the business interests of this section, force 
them to do so. It is within the power of the Farmers' 
Union, with its 2,000,000 members throughout the South, 
to achieve this result. 

"If we succeed now in restoring the price of cotton 



248 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

to the figures that ranged last year, we will be richer by 
$150,000,000. 

"The meaning of these figures, in calm and everyday 
language, is that you will have more money to spend on 
the improvement of your farms, for the payment of your 
debts, for food, clothing and luxuries for your families 
and the education of your children. Their further mean- 
ing is that each community in the South, large and small, 
will receive its share of this enormous sum total, and 
that the result will be seen in better wages, brisker busi- 
ness, more trade for the merchant and the development 
of manufacturing. 

"Getting down to the very gist of the thing, the ques- 
tion is whether you are going to pocket $150,000,000 
or whether the manipulator shall pocket it." 

This scheme was only partially carried out. It was 
followed by an attempt by statutes to reduce the produc- 
tion of cotton, which failed only because each southern 
state was jealous of the others and an attempt to induce 
all to adopt similar legislation failed. Cotton how- 
ever has been stored in large quantities and the banks as 
far as possible have loaned money on the certificates. 
To-day the American Cotton Association with head- 
quarters at Atlanta, Georgia, is attempting to formulate 
some new scheme which shall insure to the South con- 
trol of its peculiar product. 

This association has been particularly active in its 
attempts to pool the cotton crop and has even gone so 
far as to try to induce the Federal Reserve Bank to finance 
its schemes, though on September 21st, 1920, the at- 
tempt was denounced by Secretary of the Treasury D. F. 
Houston. If successful the plan would carry the North 
Dakota idea one step further. 

At a meeting of the National Board of Farmers' Or- 



THE AFTERMATH 249 

ganizations which was held at Columbus, Ohio, in Sep- 
tember, 19 19, the following program was seriously con- 
sidered: 

u First — A national marketing company organized on a 
non-stock, non-profit fixing basis so as not to conflict with 
the provisions of the Sherman anti-trust law. This will be 
formed after the nine principal wheat growing states 
have each been organized with at least 51 per cent, of 
the growers signed up under a five-year contract to de- 
liver all of their wheat. 

"Second — In case of overproduction in any year, it will 
be necessary to store the surplus and perhaps cut the 
acreage the following year. 

"Third — The interests of the public are to be protected 
by including on the board of directors with full voting 
powers, representatives of the departments of agriculture 
and the federal trade commission." 

In speaking of this program Charles A. Lyman, sec- 
retary of the National Board of Farm Organizations, 
said: 

"There has been injected into the proposed cooperative 
movement to bring the producer and consumer closer to- 
gether, a question so controversial and fraught with so 
many possibilities that farmers must decide at once to 
face the issue. 

"Assuming that it is right for the farmers to form 
themselves into large monopolistic price fixing combina- 
tions, and assuming that the wheat growers will be will- 
ing to form their five-year pooling arrangements, that 
the business can be properly financed, etc., let us deter- 
mine the probable attitude that the consumers of the 
country will take. Can we make them believe that a 
price-fixing monopoly of wheat by farmers is desirable? 
That is the fly in the ointment." 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

COOPERATION AND STATE AND NATIONAL AID 

Even though the Non-partisan League may lose its 
power, we shall still have the problem, and the farmers 
will still have their opportunities for the creation of 
cooperative monopolies. 

And it was this possibility, and this probability, and 
a promise of Republican aid in its fulfillment that was 
one of the principal reasons for the defeat in Minnesota 
of the Non-partisan party, and perhaps for its reverses 
throughout the whole country. 

In an address which was delivered during the recent 
campaign at the Minnesota State Fair, Senator (now 
President) Harding said: 

"Government paternalism, whether applied to agri- 
culture or to any other of our great national industries, 
would stifle ambition, impair efficiency, lessen production 
and make us a nation of dependent incompetents. The 
farmer requires no special favors at the hands of the 
government. All he needs is a fair chance and such 
just consideration for agriculture as we ought to give to 
a basic industry and ever seek to promote the common 
good." 

He then spoke approvingly of cooperation, and of 
the fruit growers' associations and selling agencies of 
the Pacific Coast, and then said: 

"Some of the things which ought to be done, if we 
are to put our agriculture on a sound foundation, have 

250 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 251 

been mentioned in the national platform of the party to 
whose pledges I am committed. 

"First, the need of farm representation in larger gov- 
ernmental affairs is recognized. During the past seven 
years the right of agriculture to a voice in government 
administration has been practically ignored, and, at times, 
the farmer has suffered grievously as a result. The 
farmer has a vital interest in our trade relations with 
other countries, in the administration of our financial 
policies, and in many of the larger activities of the gov- 
ernment. His interests must be safeguarded by men 
who understand his needs, he must be actually and prac- 
tically represented. 

"Second, the right of farmers to form cooperative 
associations for the marketing of their products must 
be granted. The concert of agriculture is as essential to 
farms as a similar concert of action is to factories. A 
prosperous agriculture demands not only efficiency in pro- 
duction, but efficiency in marketing. Through coop- 
erative associations the route between the producer and 
the consumer can and must be shortened. Wasteful ef- 
fort can and must be avoided. Unnecessary expense can 
and must be eliminated. It is to the advantage of all 
of our people that every possible improvement be made 
in our methods of getting the products of our farms into 
the hands of the people who consume them. The legiti- 
mate functions of the middleman may continue to be per- 
formed, by private enterprise, under conditions where 
the middleman is necessary and gives his skill to our 
joint welfare. The parasite in distribution who preys on 
both producer and consumer must no longer sap the 
vitality of this fundamental life. 

"Fourth, we promise to put an end to unnecessary 
price-fixing of farm products and to ill-considered efforts 



252 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

arbitrarily to reduce farm product prices. In time of na- 
tional crisis, when there is a known scarcity of any nec- 
essary product, price control for the purpose of making 
a fair distribution of the stores on hand may be both 
necessary and wise. But we know that there can be no 
repeal of natural laws — the eternal fundamentals. The 
history of the last three thousand years records the folly 
of such efforts. If the price of any farm product, for 
example, is arbitrarily fixed at a point which does not 
cover the cost of production, the farmer is compelled 
to reduce the production of that particular crop. This 
results in a shortage which in turn brings about higher 
prices than before, and thus intensifies the danger from 
which it was sought to escape. In times past many na- 
tions have tried to hold down living costs by arbitrarily 
fixing prices of farm products. All such efforts have 
failed, and have usually brought national disaster. 

"Government drives against food prices such as we 
have experienced during the past two years are equally 
vain and useless. The ostensible purpose of such drives 
is to reduce the price the consumer pays for food. The 
actual result is unjustly to depress for a time the prices 
the farmer receives for his grains and live stock, but with 
no appreciable reductions in the price the consumer pays. 
Such drives simply give the speculator and the profiteer 
additional opportunities to add to their exactions, while 
they add to the uncertainty and discouragement under 
which the farmer is laboring during this period of re- 
adjustment. 

"Fifth, we favor the administration of the farm loan 
act so as to help men who farm to secure farms of their 
own, and to give to them long-time credits needed to 
practice the best methods of diversified farming. 

"We also favor the authorization of associations to 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 253 

provide the necessary machinery to furnish personal 
credit to the man, whether land owner or tenant, who is 
hampered for lack of working capital. The highest type 
of rural civilization is that in which the land is farmed 
by the men who own it. Unfortunately, as land increases 
in value, tenancy also increases. 

"This has been true throughout history. At the present 
time probably one-half of the high-priced land in the 
corn belt states is farmed by men, who, because of lack 
of capital, find it necessary to rent. This increase in 
tenancy brings with it evils which are a real menace to 
national welfare. The land owner, especially if he be a 
speculator who is holding for a profit through an advance 
in value, is concerned chiefly in securing the highest pos- 
sible rent. The tenant who lacks sufficient working cap- 
ital, and who too often is working under a short time 
lease, is forced to farm the land to the limit and rob it 
of its fertility in order to pay the rent. Thus we have 
a sort of conspiracy between the landlord and tenant to 
rob the soil upon which our national well-being and indeed 
our very existence depend. Amid such conditions, we 
have inefficient schools, broken-down churches, and a 
sadly-limited social life. We should therefore, concern 
ourselves not only in helping men to secure farms of 
their own, and in helping the tenant secure the working 
capital he needs to carry on the best methods of diversified 
farming, but we should work out a system of land leas- 
ing which, while doing full justice to both landlord and 
tenant, will at the same time conserve the fertility of 
the soil. 

"Sixth, we do not longer recognize the right of specu- 
lative profit in the operation of our transportation sys- 
tems, but we are pledged to restore them to the highest 
state of efficiency as quickly as possible. Agriculture has 



254 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

suffered more severely than any other industry through 
the inefficient railroad service of the last two years. 
Many farmers have incurred disastrous losses through 
inability to market their grain and live stock. Such a 
condition must not be permitted to continue. We must 
bring about conditions which will give us prompt service 
at the lowest possible rates. 

"Seventh, we are pledged to the revision of the tariff 
as soon as conditions shall make it necessary for the 
preservation of the home market for American labor, 
American agriculture and American industry. For a 
permanent good fortune all must have a common interest. 
If we are to build up a self-sustaining agriculture here 
at home, the farmer must be protected from unfair com- 
petition from those countries where agriculture is still 
being exploited and where the standards of living on the 
farm are much lower than here. We have asked for 
higher American standards, let us maintain them. 

"The farmers of the corn belt, for example, are al- 
ready threatened with unfair competition from the Ar- 
gentine, whose rich soil is being exploited in heedless 
fashion, and where the renters who farm it are living 
under conditions more miserable than the poorest ten- 
ants in the United States. In times past, duties on agri- 
cultural products were largely in the nature of paper 
tariffs, for we were a great surplus-producing nation. 
Now that consumption at home is so nearly reaching 
normal production, the American farmer has a right to 
insist that in our trade relations with other countries he 
shall have the same consideration that is accorded to other 
industries and we mean to protect them all. 

"So long as America can produce the foods we need, 
I am in favor of buying from America first. It is this 
very preference which impels development and improve- 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 255 

ment. Whenever America can manufacture to meet 
American needs — and there is almost no limit to our 
genius and resources — I favor producing in America first. 
I commend American preference to American productive 
activities, because material good fortune is essential to 
our higher attainment, and linked indissolubly are farm 
and factory in the great economic fabric of American life. 

"Under a sound system of agriculture, fostered and 
safeguarded by wise and fair administration of state and 
federal government, the farmers of the United States 
can feed our people for many centuries — perhaps indefi- 
nitely. But we must understand conditions, and make a 
new appraisal of relationship, and square our actions 
to the great, underlying foundation of all human en- 
deavor. Farming is not an auxiliary, it is the main plant, 
and geared with it, inseparably, is every wheel of trans- 
portation and industry. America could not go on with 
a dissatisfied farming people, and no nation is secure 
where land hunger abides. We need fewer land hogs, 
who menace our future, and more fat hogs for ham and 
bacon. We need less beguilement in cultivating a quad- 
rennial crop of votes and more consideration for farming 
as our basic industry. We need less appeal to class con- 
sciousness, and more resolute intelligence in promptly 
solving our problems. We need rest and recuperation 
for a soil which has been worked out in agitation, and 
more and better harvests in the inviting fields of mutual 
understanding. We need less of grief about the ills 
which we may charge to the neglect of our own citizen- 
ship, and more confidence in just government, along with 
determination to make and hold it just. 

"We need to contemplate the miracle of America in 
that understanding which enables us to appreciate that 
which made us what we are, and then resolve to cling 



256 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

fast to all that is good and go confidently on to great 
things." 

This address was a few weeks later followed by a more 
explicit statement by Mr. J. A. O. Preus, the Republican 
and anti-Non-partisan candidate for the office of gov- 
ernor of Minnesota. He stated that in the United 
States as a whole 74 per cent, of the population was in 
the cities as against 26 per cent, in the country, 1 and 
that even in Minnesota with its 51,000,000 odd acres of 
land, practically all of which were capable of cultivation, 
68 per cent, of the people were to be found in the cities 
as against 32 per cent, upon the farms, and after sug- 
gesting that if we had state ownership the majority 
would control, and the policies of the farmers and their 
industrial prosperity would be controlled by the residents 
of the cities and not by themselves, he then said, among 
other things: 

"One plan advocated is that of having state-owned 
elevators, packing houses, factories, mills, terminals and 
so forth, operated by the state in competition with the 
privately owned elevators, warehouses and so forth. 

"The other plan proposed is that of having more co- 
operative elevators added to the 352 which we now have 
throughout the state and through which approximately 
40 per cent, of our grain is marketed, as well as having 
other warehouses to take care of all other products of the 
farms of the State of Minnesota, to be owned and con- 
trolled exclusively by the farmers and operated on a co- 
operative plan. 

"Would it not be well for the farmers to consider 
which plan will be most to their interest? 

"One proposes bonding the state and taxing all the 

x This was an error. The real ratio is 52 per cent in the cities and 
48 per cent in the country. 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 257 

people in the state for these purposes and then having 
state-owned plants to be administered by all the people 
oi the state, 68 per cent, of whom live in the cities and 
villages and 32 per cent, on the farms. 

"If the state should engage in these various enterprises 
the state would have thousands of employes subject to 
political appointment or under a civil service law, which 
would get about the same results and efficiency out of 
the employes which the federal government receives from 
its various departments. 

"Would it not be better for the farmers to consider the 
cooperative plan? 

"Cooperation is the opposite of state ownership. Co- 
operation develops the individual farmer's authority over 
his own business, inasmuch as he remains in charge of his 
business, and when it becomes too big for him to handle 
as an individual he and other farmers handle their busi- 
ness collectively. 

"One farmer alone cannot have the advantages in 
shipping and selling his produce which he can secure by 
combining the efforts of a large number of farmers. 

"State ownership would take the authority away from 
the individual and place it in the hands of the state as a 
whole. The farmers' business would then become 
political. 

"Here in Minnesota we have at this time what is known 
as the Farmers' Terminal Packing Company, located at 
Newport, just across the river from South St. Paul. 

"The packing company is a stock company embracing 
14,000 farmers, all of whom are stockholders. The 
farmers have the entire voice in the running of this corpo- 
ration. They are incorporated under the cooperative 
law of the state of Minnesota, known as Chapter 382, 



258 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

Laws 19 19. Every farmer has one vote, regardless of 
the amount of stock he holds. 

"This packing company plant has disclosed that there 
are needless middlemen between the farmers and con- 
sumers, for the stock sold by the farmers and butchered 
at the packing plant places the farmers, through its 
agency, the packing plant, directly in contact with the 
retailer or consumer himself. 

"Another example of successful cooperation can be 
found in the case of the citrus growers in California. 
Every person is familiar with the 'Sunkist' lemons and 
oranges. These fruits have been marketed by the farm- 
ers of California through their own marketing agency, 
and are sold directly to your storekeeper from the farm- 
ers' cooperative exchange, belonging to and operated 
by the fruit growers of California. 

"The farmer has given up his right to individually 
sell his fruit to whomsoever he wishes, and has combined 
with his farmer associates to jointly sell his produce with 
them. In 19 19 the citrus fruit growers of California did 
a business of nearly $120,000,000. 

"Our farmers of Minnesota have been awakened to 
the benefits which can be derived through cooperative 
exchanges. We have to-day approximately 3,300 co- 
operative organizations. 

"Among these might be mentioned the farmers' mu- 
tual fire insurance companies. In 1879 tne ^ rst mutual 
fire insurance company was organized for the purpose of 
insuring farm buildings only. Since that time down to 
the present there have been organized 161 companies. 
They have sold insurance to our farmers at an average of 
15 cents per hundred. The lowest annual rate in stock 
companies is 75 cents per annum, and most farm insur- 
ance is written on an annual business. More business has 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 259 

been written at a rate of $1.50 and $2 per hundred, and 
it is safe to say that the cooperative organizations have 
saved the farmers from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. 

"The cooperative creameries, of which there are a 
total number of 630 in the state, disclose daily to the 
farmers what a cooperative institution can do. 

"The prices received at the creamery by the farmer for 
his raw product, which is made into butter, is not to ex- 
ceed 5 per cent, less than the price paid by the consumer 
in the cities. The difference is contained in the actual 
cost of manufacture and transportation. 

"Under the agricultural department established at the 
last session of our Legislature, cooperative enterprises 
have .been greatly encouraged. 

"Just recently a potato exchange, embracing about 
ninety potato associations, was established, and the pur- 
pose of the Minnesota Potato Exchange is to handle the 
products of its members at the actual cost of selling. 
Members of the Minnesota Potato Exchange are socie- 
ties of farmers, each society aggregating generally about 
seventy-five members, who either build their own ware- 
houses or lease buildings for such purposes. 

"These societies having now been combined in the 
Minnesota Potato Exchange, will be in a position, as the 
agency of the farmers, to market the potato crops of 
Minnesota farms anywhere throughout the world. 

"One of the leading questions, therefore, before the 
farmer of Minnesota to-day is whether he will engage in 
cooperation with other farmers of the state, or elsewhere 
if he wishes, for the purpose of marketing his products 
and purchasing his own supplies or whether he will have 
the state do these things for him. 

"The 'United Grain Growers of Canada' now has a 
membership of 35,000 farmers. It is a stock company. 



260 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

The stockholders are all farmers. The capital stock was 
until recently $5,000,000 and a member can hold 100 
shares of the value of $25 each, but he is entitled to only 
one vote, thereby recognizing the mutual or cooperative 
idea, which is not based on the amount of stock which 
any one person holds. No one but a farmer can pur- 
chase stock. 

"The company has an elevator at Fort William, which 
is leased to it by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and which 
has a capacity of 2,500,000 bushels. It has another 
elevator at Port Arthur with a capacity of 3,500,000 
bushels. These elevators have both made money for the 
farmer stockholders by way of setting aside a surplus for 
developing the business or declaring dividends. The 
record of these two elevators is very much better than 
that of the government owned elevator. 

"The 'United Grain Growers, Limited' has a market- 
ing service covering both country and terminal elevators 
for grain and also engages in export business. It has a 
separate live stock business and sells its stock at regular 
markets and supplies stockers and feeders for farmers. 

"It also has a cooperative machinery business and 
handles farm implements and other supplies. 

"It buys and sells farm lands for its members as well 
as others and operates this business in conjunction with an 
insurance department. It also has some standing timber 
and operates a mill thereon. 

"In Minnesota such an association could be organized 
under Chapter 427, Laws 19 19, known as the Coopera- 
tive Organization Act. Some slight changes would be 
necessary but if such an association were organized with 
its stock company for marketing and purchasing farm pro- 
ducts and supplies, it could purchase a membership in the 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 261 

Chamber of Commerce of Minneapolis and Duluth on 
behalf of the farmers of Minnesota. 

"This company, owned by the farmers, controlled by 
the farmers, and having equal rights of purchasing and 
selling in the Chamber of Commerce, could engage on a 
competitive basis with the middlemen now found between 
the producer and the consumer of farm products in any 
business in which the members of the Chamber of Com- 
merce now engage. 

"If the farmer should view this plan with skepticism and 
doubt, they may with all propriety do their own buying 
and selling without the aid of the Chamber of Commerce 
provided they are sufficiently large and have an amount 
of business sufficient to make it practicable. The Farmers' 
Equity Exchange is following the latter plan. 

"In connection with cooperation in Canada let it not 
escape your attention that originally the farmers in Can- 
ada wanted terminal elevators to be owned and operated 
by the government. 

"They found after experience that it was a failure and 
turned to cooperation as the solution of their problems. 

"Our farmers, I believe, are determined in securing 
other marketing conditions than those which now prevail. 

"They must, I believe, choose between the state-owned 
plan where all the people of Minnesota, 68 per cent of 
whom are in cities and only 32 per cent in the country, 
will control, or the cooperative plan of ownership and 
operation by the farmers and farmers alone. 

"Just recently, Senator Harding, the splendid Repub- 
lican nominee for President of the United States, stated: 

'I believe that the American people, not only in behalf 
of the farmer but in behalf of their own welfare and the 
pocket books of the consumers of America will encourage, 
make lawful and stimulate cooperative buying, coopera- 



262 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

tive distribution and cooperative selling of farm products. 
'I think the farmers of Minnesota believe in the co- 
operative method which has already done so much for 
them contrasted with the state-owned methods, which, if 
once applied to farm products, will steadily grow and ex- 
pand to embrace the complete program of what is known 
as Socialism, will confiscate all property which is held for 
gain whether it be stocks, bonds, mines, or farms, that 
they may be operated for the benefit of all our people and 
ultimately destroy the independence, liberty and private 
property of the greatest rural civilization known in the 
world's history, that which is found in the United States 
to-day.' " 2 

2 On this subject the St. Paul Dispatch for October 2, 1920, said: 
COOPERATION VS. SOCIALISM 

"The marketing problem of farm produce which discloses a wide 
disparity between the price received by the farmer and that paid by 
the consumer was the text of the speech at Redwood Falls with which 
J. A. O. Preus opened his campaign for governor. Speaking to an 
agricultural community he made farmer welfare and prosperity his 
theme and put up to the tiller of the soil the choice which confronts 
him — cooperation or state socialism. 

"The problem is to eliminate the natural profit or the devastating 
profiteering, as the case may be, of unnecessary middlemen. Two reme- 
dies are offered, one the state socialism advocated by Townleyism and 
the other the cooperative systems, in comparative infancy in Minnesota 
but carried to marked success in Canada for instance. Which is better 
for the farmer? Mr. Preus answered the question clearly and with 
illumination. 

"The socialistic plan provides for bonding the state and taxing all 
of the people for state-owned elevators, mills, packing plants, etc., and 
then having all of these state-owned plants administered by all of the 
people of the state, of whom 68 per cent live in the cities and 32 per 
cent on the farm. It means plunging farmers' affairs into the politics 
of the cities. It means managing farmers' business by politicians in 
politics, with the inefficiency, incompetency and waste always found in 
political management. It means taking away from the farmer every 
vestige of individuality and sinking it in the state as a whole — submerg- 
ing it in politics. 

"Contrasted with this picture of expensive and inefficient political 
control is the showing of successful and practical results of cooperative 
marketing. Mr. Preus did not deal in theoretical abstractions, but 
cited numerous concrete instances, from mutual insurance in Minnesota 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 263 

Here we have the new program, and the program which 
the various farmers' bureaus of the country are seeking 
now to place in operation; and which must be seriously 
considered even though the Non-partisan League may be- 
come a thing of the past. In its essentials it is no different 
from that of the League. According to his address Sen- 
ator Harding did not believe in paternalism. He did not 
favor state or national ownership. He did favor experi- 
mentation. He stated that, "The right of the farmers 
to form cooperative associations for the marketing of 
their products must be granted." He seemed to promise 
a high protective tariff; he seemed to promise the aid of 
the Federal Reserve Bank. It was largely because of these 
promises or assumed promises that the farmers of the 
West forsook the Non-partisan League and rallied to his 
standard. 

To-day everywhere we have meetings of farm bureaus 
which are considering the same measures and which are 
pointing to the success of the Fruit Growers' Association 
of the Pacific Coast, and are seeking to emulate their 
example. 3 

to the operations of grain growers in Canada and the citrus organiza- 
tion of California. It will be worth the while of the interested farmer 
to take these several examples of successful cooperation and make a study 
of them, though doubtless all of them are familiar to the agriculturist 
who has given thoughtful attention to the marketing problem. 

"Farmers are dissatisfied with the marketing conditions of the day 
and determined to change them. Mr. Preus points out with unmis- 
takable clearness the lines of change that are available. Farmers must 
choose between the two principles involved — the farmer running his 
own business through cooperation or turning it over to state socialism, 
which is not more nor less than handing it over to state politics of which 
the cities control 68 per cent and the farms 32 per cent." 

3 On this subject, the Jamestown Alert said: 

"The citrus fruit growers of California, according to information 
compiled by their agency, have again been successful in marketing their 
fruits and perishable food products at a lowest cost. This cost for the 
entire output was the lowest marketing cost of any perishable food 
product in America. Transacting a volume of business aggregating 
over $81,000,000 the handling cost was one and one-third per cent. 



264 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

The immediate purpose, or the alleged purpose, of all 
of these movements has been the destruction of the mid- 
dle-man and the prevention of the glutting of the markets 
immediately after the harvests, when most of the pro- 
ducers desire or the necessities of most of them require 
them to realize upon their crops and other products. This 
desire and need, however, should not justify a more or 
less complete monopoly and an unreasonably increased 
price to the consumer. 

The contest of the future will be over the question of 
government aid and the use that should be made of the 
Federal Reserve Banks. The question will also have to 
be met, whether agriculture differs from other industries, 
and whether, though generally prohibiting pools and 
monopolies, we should, in times of peace as well as in 
times of war, make an exception in favor of the pro- 
ducers of agricultural products. This exception was 
made in the so-called Lever Act. Should the privilege 
be continued? 



The production was oranges, grape fruit and lemons. The fruit grow- 
ers' society handled over 73 per cent of the entire citrus output of 
California last year, and the returns to the members for fruit shipped by 
the exchange will be approximately $60,000,000. 

"Owing to the business-like organization and the cooperation system 
the expense of marketing the fruit was less than it was ten years ago. 
Increased freight rates have not added to the retail cost of the fruit. 
The prices received are determined by supply and demand. The pro- 
ducer of perishable fruit must sell at what the public is willing to pay. 
There are 10,500 members of the fruit growers' exchange who elect the 
officers and have a direct voice in the cooperative non-profiting system. 
Packing house, materials and fruits ranch supplies are purchased at cost. 

"If the fruit growers of California can cooperate and sell their 
products which are perishable at a satisfactory profit, through a market- 
ing system of their own, is there any good reason why the spring 
wheat growers of the Northwest cannot do the same thing with a product 
that is not perishable, and has a world-wide demand at all times? 
Farmers of North Dakota can do with their wheat crop what the fruit 
growers of California have done with their product, but not through 
any schemes of a political nature, which include enormous overhead 
costs and a fanciful system of financing the transaction on public funds, 
gathered together in a bank, managed by politicians on large salaries." 



STATE AND NATIONAL AID 265 

In speaking of the possible trade controversies between 
the United States and Great Britain, the British repre- 
sentative, Sir Auckland Geddes, said that: 

"What we have to avoid is national competition organ- 
ized by government and supported by political action. For 
that form of competition I can see no need and much pos- 
sible harm. If your government or mine were to begin 
to organize in behalf of exclusive economic advantage 
there would inevitably come a clash of interests that at 
least would strain the friendly relations between the 
countries. 

"In my opinion it is absolutely necessary that there 
should be no suspicion on the part of either government 
that the other is secretly following such a policy. 

Was there any wisdom in this suggestion, as applied 
to our international relationships? Should it be applied 
to our internal relations? 



CHAPTER XXIX 

A THINKING DEMOCRACY A GOVERNMENT BY LAW 

AND NOT BY TEMPORARY MAJORITIES 

The Supreme Court of North Dakota has affirmed the 
right of the state to engage in the enterprises which have 
been proposed by the Non-partisan League, and following 
its usual practice of yielding to the state's discretion in 
such matters, the Supreme Court of the United States has 
affirmed that decision. Cooperative marketing also can 
be carried to extreme lengths and almost any kind of pool- 
ing may sooner or later be legalized. 

The question then is one of expediency and of necessity. 
In the case of state-ownership and operation it is whether 
business and politics for any period of time can walk 
hand in hand, whether such enterprises can be made profit- 
able and whether the people of the state, and especially 
the farmers, will be willing to pay the costs in added taxes 
and the squandering of the state's resources if the experi- 
ments prove to be failures. We mention the farmer par- 
ticularly, because eighty-four per cent of the population 
of North Dakota is rural and the landed proprietors are 
those who really possess the vested interests and who ulti- 
mately must suffer if failure results. The question, after 
all, is an economic question, and it is much to be regretted 
that in its solution there has been so little sane discussion, 
so much politics, and so much crimination and recrimi- 
nation. It is to be regretted, too, that throughout the con- 
troversy so determined an effort has been made to prevent 

266 



A THINKING DEMOCRACY 267 

free and full debate and to stampede popular thought. 
It is to be regretted that by the partial control of the 
judiciary and the sweeping aside the forms of law and the 
constitutional safeguards, which after all were only cre- 
ated in order to give democracy an opportunity for a 
sober second thought, the leaders of the League have 
often been able to rush matters to an issue and to prevent 
the candid discussion which their measures certainly re- 
quire. It is also to be regretted that in the contest class 
has been arrayed against class, and that the desire of a 
few to gain political power and to create a new political 
party has caused the League to join hands with the 
socialists and the agitators and to capitalize discontent. 
If it had not been for the desire for political power and 
the interests of the farmers alone had been considered, 
there would have been no call for the new party at all for 
in agricultural North Dakota the people of all classes 
are vitally interested in high prices and in honest grades. 
North Dakota is a purely agricultural state and no fair 
minded man can fail to sympathize with its farmers in 
their desire for large grain elevators both within their 
own borders and at the terminal points of Minneapolis, 
St. Paul and Duluth. Nor, if he considers the interests of 
North Dakota alone, can any one fail to agree with the 
League's plan to mill as far as possible all of the grain 
of the state within its own territory, and by this means 
not only preserve for the use of the state the by-products 
and defective grains and seeds, all of which have a cer- 
tain value, but to save the loss of the freight on the surplus 
to the terminal markets. All this is legitimate. In the 
past the millers and grain-dealers of the big centers could 
hardly be blamed for taking to themselves the profits 
which their enormous investments in machinery and their 
costly experiments had alone made possible — or in other 






268 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

words for doing what every other business man does. 
Now that North Dakota is in a measure self-sufficient it 
in turn cannot be blamed for making the most of its 
opportunities and for seeking to retain for itself the profits 
which heretofore it has been compelled to share with out- 
siders. There has been altogether too much calling of 
names. On the one side the bogy of the "Robber Baron" 
and of "Big Business" has been too much emphasized and 
on the other the charge of "socialism." The question is 
purely a business question. It is one of expediency rather 
than of law or of right. The criticism of the leaders of 
the North Dakota movement should not be that they have 
advocated policies that are inherently wrong or un-Ameri- 
can, but that they have sought to commit the state to 
vast and expensive enterprises, many of which we believe 
must prove unremunerative, by pressure rather than by 
reason and by abusing those who are opposed to them 
rather than by seeking to enlist their support and to over- 
come their arguments by free and friendly discussion. The 
most friendly of critics will also be compelled to admit 
that throughout the whole controversy untruths have been 
told and published and half truths have been continually 
stated. The theory of the League throughout indeed has 
been that the end justifies the means and that the freedom 
of the press and of the platform involves the freedom to 
misrepresent. This doctrine has been announced by Mr. 
Justice Robinson of the State Supreme Court in his ju- 
dicial opinions and public letters. It has been adopted 
throughout by the League's leading papers, where even 
judicial opinions have been distorted and misquoted, and 
straw men have been erected and bombarded in order 
that conservative judges might be discredited. 

We are a nation of property-owners and naturally con- 
servative. North Dakota is a state of farmers who for 



A THINKING DEMOCRACY 269 

the most part own their lands in fee, and the landed 
proprietor least of all can afford to be a radical, or to 
lend his sanction to wild-cat schemes which, if unsuccess- 
ful, he must himself ultimately pay in increased taxes. 
If only he is given an opportunity to think, he will soon 
come to realize that necessarily the majority of the pro- 
posed state-owned industries must fail; that sooner or 
later every town and locality will be clamoring for its 
share of the state patronage, and that in order to gain 
votes and keep them, packing-plants and creameries and 
elevators, and banks and stores and other enterprises will 
be established in localities where the demand for them 
is not justified and will be entrusted to the management 
of ward-heelers and political organizers rather than to 
men who have been trained in the industries. He will 
soon come to realize that the success of every business 
depends on skillful and efficient management. He will 
come to realize the foolishness of entrusting his indus- 
trial future to political hucksters, who for the sake of 
votes will establish creameries in localities where the 
farmers raise only wheat and small grains and there is 
therefore no cream, and packing houses where there are 
no hogs or cattle. 1 

The trouble with North Dakota is not that men are 
discussing economic questions nor even that to a certain 
degree they are indulging in state socialism. Give them 
the facts and give them time to think and after thinking 
they will act wisely and well. It is that a one-sided propa- 
ganda is being spread among them. It is that discontent 



1 In the year 1920 the so-called Equity Packing Plant at Fargo, North 
Dakota, which was capitalized at $3,000,000 reported losses of over 
$700,000. A few years before the writer asked an officer of the Armour 
Packing Company if a packing plant would pay in the state of North 
Dakota. The reply was brief but suggestive. It was, "If it would 
Armour and Company would have built one there long ago." 



270 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

alone is being taught. It is that a class-appeal is being 
made, and that the farmers are being told that all who 
differ with their radical leaders are owned by the "Big 
Interests," and that therefore they must not pay any at- 
tention to them, or even listen to their side of the case. 
It is that they are being told there is a capitalistic con- 
spiracy of the business and professional classes against the 
farmer and the toiler, and that he who works with his 
hands is alone the toiler. 

But the greatest of all of the evils of the movement is 
the attempt that the League has made to control the 
courts and to elect judges who are committed to its pol- 
icies, and who, being dependent for their election on the 
favors of the new political leaders, will to a greater or 
lesser extent be controlled by them. It lies in the un- 
American doctrine that the judge is not a judge but a 
representative, and that his function is not to administer 
the established law, leaving it to the legislatures and the 
constitutional amendments to change that law and to 
keep it responsive to the growing needs of the age ; but 
that his function is to be a representative merely. It 
lies in the doctrine that it is the duty of the judge to keep 
his ears to the ground, and ever to remember that the 
primary elections will sooner or later come upon him, or 
that the recall may be instituted. It lies in the doctrine 
that it is his duty to say to himself, "Smith is right, and 
Jones is wrong, but the primary elections are near, and 
Jones can carry Brown County, and I therefore will de- 
cide for Jones"; to say "I know that I have sworn to 
support the constitution and I know that that statute is 
unconstitutional, but the primary elections are near, to-day 
the temporary majority favors that statute though it 
may oppose it to-morrow, and it will favor it until after 
the primary. I know on what side my bread is buttered. 



A THINKING DEMOCRACY 271 

I will therefore hold it to be constitutional." The danger 
lies in the fact that the public has been taught to believe 
that there is nothing improper in a judge promising in 
advance how he will decide his cases or in having a back 
door to his court. 

We thank God that the great majority of our Ameri- 
can judges are still brave enough to regard their oaths 
of office and to face political defeat rather than to pros- 
titute their high callings. If, however, they ever come 
to yield to these demands then and at that moment will 
free government vanish from the face of America. 

It is to be regretted that the real issues have been so 
beclouded. None of the proposed schemes of industry 
or of government are new, though to many who know 
nothing of the history of the past, they appear to be so. 2 
The questions involved are largely economic questions; 
they are questions of expediency, and the real issue is 
whether these changes, if they are to be effected at all, are 
to be effected in a legal and orderly and constitutional and 
American manner, or by the force of an organized but 
uninformed and essentially lawless temporary majority. 
The issue is whether these changes are to be thought out, 
or are to be forced through. It is a contest between the 
American system of a government under the law, and the 
Prussian and Mexican system of a government by force 
and by intimidation. 

Few of us realize how similar to the struggle in Europe 
is and must be the struggle in America itself, and in fact, 
the struggle in all free lands. Clouded as the issues may 
have been, we were certainly not fighting in Europe for 
territory or for power. We and the free peoples of the 

2 In England the middleman was legislated against during many 
centuries. Even as late as 1815 a man was convicted and sentenced to 
prison for having sold ten bushels of oats at an increase of ten cents 
a bushel. 



272 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

earth were fighting for the recognition of one cardinal 
principle, and that was that there should be, as far as the 
nations of the earth were concerned, a government by law 
and not by men, by compact and by agreement and not by 
the heaviest battalions. We were insisting that, even as 
between nations, the honor of a gentleman should prevail. 
Slowly but surely we had to come to realize that the main- 
tenance of civilization depends upon the obligation of the 
contract, and there could be no lasting peace unless the 
nations of the world were willing to enforce, by force if 
necessary, the doctrine that a treaty is a binding compact 
and obedience to international law, a moral obligation. 

We had come to realize, and Germany herself must 
by this time have come to realize, that when she declared 
that a treaty was a scrap of paper and that a contract 
was of no binding force on him who was strong enough to 
break it, she placed herself outside of the pale of civiliza- 
tion. We shall be blind indeed if we fail to recognize 
that it is on this very principle that the permanence of 
America herself depends, and that underneath all of the 
progress of to-day there lurks a hidden danger, not so 
much of force or hatred as of misinformed enthusiasm, 
which may wreck our whole ship of state; and that in the 
cry of to-day for a purer democracy, a larger measure of 
popular control, for speedy progress and for an adminis- 
tration of the law which shall be free from delay and free 
from technicality, and above all, in the growing impatience 
with constitutional restraints, there may be hidden a pop- 
ular impatience with, or at least a popular misunderstand- 
ing of, the principles of orderly government, which will 
prove disastrous. 

It is to be regretted exceedingly that the public gener- 
ally, including many college professors and otherwise well 
educated and thoughtful men, fail to realize that the con- 



A THINKING DEMOCRACY 273 

stitutions were not enacted and the courts entrusted with 
their enforcement in order that American progress might 
be defeated, but in order that there might be an opportu- 
nity for a sober second thought, and in order that we 
might not too hastily overthrow that which it has taken 
centuries of thought and laborious toil, yes, of heroism 
and martyrdom, to build up; in order, in short, that we 
might have thoughtful and sane and democratic progress 
and not the rule of the agitator and a destructive anarchy. 
There are too many men who think that civilization was 
born yesterday morning at ten o'clock. They have no 
realization of the centuries of struggle and experience 
that are represented by our constitutions and are crystal- 
lized in our institutions and in our common law. 

It is to be regretted that not only has a socialist hier- 
archy been allowed to gain control of the agrarian move- 
ment of North Dakota, but to gain the control of the 
State University, the Agricultural College, the normal 
and the public schools, and even the circulating libraries 
of the State; and by this means to spread abroad its prop- 
aganda of distrust of government and of established 
institutions. 

It is to be regretted that the proceeds of the magnificent 
land grants which were given to the State of North Da- 
kota as a guarantee of democracy, and civilization, and 
opportunity for generations yet unborn, are in danger of 
being squandered and dissipated in a mad orgy of collec- 
tive ownership, in order that the state-owned industries 
may be financed, and political hucksters may have jobs. 

As patriotic citizens we cannot stand idly by and allow 
the proceeds of our magnificent school land-grants to be 
dissipated. We cannot permit the comradeship of 
America to be destroyed by class appeals. We must stand 
ready to defend our system of a government by law, 



274 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE 

and by law alone, which has made America possible. 
We cannot allow our judges to become mere representa- 
tives. Neither can we tolerate a system which makes it 
impossible for them to retain that measure of independ- 
ence which alone can make them respected, and which 
alone can make them respectable. We cannot allow judi- 
cial candidates in any state to go before conventions of 
any kind or degree and to pledge themselves to support 
their programs. Nor can we allow publications to be 
sent abroad which state that it is more necessary to elect 
a certain judge or a certain set of judges than it is to 
elect the governor himself because that judge or those 
judges have committed themselves to a certain program 
and that program must be carried through. 

We have in our cosmopolitan America the representa- 
tives of every nation, of every class, of every religion and 
of every creed. Classes and nations and religions which 
in Europe have through the centuries been divided and 
through the centuries have been at war are here working 
out a common destiny and are building a great cosmopoli- 
tan civilization. The very fact that our heterogeneous 
people has in the past yielded such an implicit obedience 
to the mandates of the American courts, is in itself the 
highest monument to the wisdom and to the probity of 
the American judge. The mandates of our courts have 
settled boundary lines, have determined great social and 
industrial policies, and have controlled sovereign states. 
Yet we have practically no standing army. The court 
stenographer and the court marshal have been army 
enough. The mandates of our courts have been obeyed 
because our people as a whole have learned the art of 
self-government and of respect for the law, and because 
back of those mandates are the will, the strong right 
arms, and the bayonets if necessary, of millions of citizen 



A THINKING DEMOCRACY 275 

soldiers. We have obeyed these mandates because the 
American people have in the past trusted, and in the past 
have had reason to trust, in their judiciary, and have 
grasped the magnificent concept of the government of a 
free people by law and by law alone. This rule of law 
has been threatened in North Dakota and the threat is 
the greatest menace of the Non-partisan League. 

No longer can we afford to play at politics or at 
government. Politics and government mean human des- 
tinies and human lives. Formerly our wants were but 
few. We had a whole continent to exploit. What 
did a panic or two matter, what did the ruin of even a 
state involve, when the boundless resources of a continent 
were untouched, the settler had merely to move a little 
further west and men and women were hardy enough for 
the enterprise? But the frontier has now been absorbed 
and the era of collectivism is now upon us. In the middle 
of the last century De Tocqueville suggested that the 
real test of American democracy would come when the 
public domain was exhausted. That time has now arrived. 
We are no longer a frontier people. Our states are 
themselves becoming empires in population and in impor- 
tance. Every day the contest for existence is becoming 
keener and keener. We need wisdom, we need faith, we 
need comradeship. The lasting criticism of the leaders 
of the League will be that they have sought to destroy the 
faith and the comradeship of America. 

To all those who seek in any state or nation to appeal 
to class prejudice and to raise the cry of North Dakota 
or any other state for the farmer or laboring-man or any 
other class of citizens; to all who denounce as reactionary 
those who still maintain that American democracy should 
know of no classes and no creeds, we recommend a care- 
ful study of the address of the British Ambassador, Sir 



276 NON-PARTISAN LEAGUfe 

Auckland Geddes, which was delivered before the Ameri- 
can Bar Association on August 25, 1920, and his trench- 
ant suggestion : 

"Let the Bolsheviki and their supporters in all lands 
prate as they will of reactionaries and imperialists. They 
themselves are the reactionaries. Their admitted doctrine 
is to establish a privileged class which they call the prole- 
tariat, but they mean by that term a select body of their 
own supporters. Their whole creed is to force on society 
a great idea which has been revealed to them and to them 
alone, and like it or dislike it, society is to swallow it 
whole — and that is nothing but pure theocracy. But 
remember that in the theocratic theory might is right 
because it is divine and apply that remembrance to the 
position of affairs to-day." 



INDEX 



Absent Voters' Law, nature of, 99, 
167 $1 

Alaska, the looting of, and the rev- 
olution of 1906, 30 

Alert, Jamestown, on the coopera- 
tive movement, 153 

Allin, Governor Roger, 28 

American Bolshevik, editorial on 
the socialist program, 15 

American Cotton Association, 238 

American Workers' Union, at- 
tempted collective bargaining 
agreement with the Non-partisan 
League, 144 

Amidon, Judge Charles F., state- 
ment of the grievances and de- 
mands of the North Dakota 
farmer, 40; opinion in coal 
mine seizure case, 140 

Anderson, C. W., on League's 
proposed collective bargaining 
agreement with the American 
Workers' Union, 144 

Anderson, John M., a worker with 
Loftus for the terminal elevator, 

Appeal to Reason, endorsement of 

Non-partisan League, 7 
Attorneys, political control of, 167 

B 

Bacon, Jerry, 70, 77 

Bankers' associations and the at- 
tempts at a compromise, 230, 236 

Bank of North Dakota, The, rea- 
sons for, 51; limitations of, 52; 
the initiative and, 88 ; establish- 
ment and power, 90; expediency 
of, 93; loans, 94, 95, 96; as a 
rural credit agency, 96, 238; 
treatment of the private banks, 
96; favoritism of, 96; examina- 
tion of books of, 97 ; attempt to 



induce Illinois Federation of La- 
bor to become depositor, 146 ; 
complaints against the methods 
of, 209 

Barnes, Julius K., address of on 
cooperative exchanges and cham- 
bers of commerce, 55 

Barrett, C. S., on the cooperative 
movement, 236 

Bass, Jathro, an analogy, 26 

Bentall, J. O., criminal conviction 
of, 161 

"Big Business," the bogey of, 58, 72 

Birdzell, Luther E., 67, 68, 177; 
dissents in Scandinavian Ameri- 
can Bank case, 189; the You- 
mans' Bank case, 193, 197 

Blaine, Governor, election of, 219 

Boards of trade, grievances against, 
34, 3 6 > 39; necessity for, 35 

Bonds, the floating of, 226, 235 

Bowen, A. C, a founder of the 
Non-partisan League, 60; the 
story of, 61 

Bruce, Andrew A., dissenting opin- 
ion on the power to amend the 
constitution by the initiative proc- 
ess, 171 ; and the Youmans' Bank 
case, 196; address before the 
South Dakota Bar Association on 
"A government by Law and not 
by Men," 227 

Burke, Governor Andrew H., veto 
of grain elevator bill, 28 

Burke, Governor John, election as 
governor due to the insurgent 
rebellion of 1906, 31 

Burnquist, Governor J. A. A., vote 
for, 214 



Call, G. E., estimate of profits of 

farmer, 156 
Capital, state, attempt to remove to 

New Rockford, 165 



277 



278 



INDEX 



Capitalists, eastern, North Dakota's 
dependence upon, 24 

Caucus, secret, 65 

Christianson, Chief Justice A. M., 
dissents in Scandinavian Ameri- 
can Bank case, 189; reelected in 
1920 on the anti-Non-partisan 
ticket, 220 

Civil war, a threat of, 6, 131, 143; 
the danger of, 136, 139 

Claptrap, seductiveness of, 227 

Coal mines, act authorizing seizure 
of, 91; the seizure of, 131; the 
Kansas and the North Dakota 
methods compared, 132; opinion 
of Judge William Nuessle, 135; 
opinion of Judge Charles F. 
Amidon, 140; bill for state own- 
ership of, 231 

Coates, David C, story of and ser- 
vices to the League, 65 ; a 
League dictator, 106 

Collins, Lieutenant Governor Louis 
L., vote for, 214 

Colorado, primaries of 1920, 214; 
fall elections of 1920, 219 

Compromise, attempts at, 223, 230, 
235. 

Conniston, the story of, an analogy, 
26 

Constitution, amendments to, 103, 
105; investment of school funds, 
104; amendment by the initiative 
process, 104; dissenting opinion 
of Chief Justice Bruce denounc- 
ing methods pursued, 171 

Cooperative Movement, the, 17, 
232, 245, 246, 248, 250, 258, 263, 
264 

Cotton, pooling of, 236, 238 

Council of Defense, attempt to seize 
and farm vacant lands, 132 

Courts, attempts to control, 169, 
170; selection of judges, 170; 
preelection promises, 171 

Criticism of League's program a 
felony, 165 

D 

Democracy, a thoughtful, 273 

Dibell, Judge H. B., 216 

Direct action, the North Dakota 

theory of, 131 
Dispatch, St. Paul, cooperation vs. 

socialism, 262 



Disloyalty, charge of, 10, 153, 155, 
157; no bar to holding office, 163; 
the farmer loyal, 155; loyalty in- 
consistent with socialism, 106, 154 

Drake, Benjamin, 63 

Drake, mill at, 226 



Eight-hour labor day, attitude of 
non-partisans toward, 11, 146 

Elevators, terminal, of Society of 
Equity at St. Paul, 54, 56 ; "con- 
stitutional amendments and, 57; 
report of special committee on, 
58; defeat of bill for, 57, 58 

Elliott, Howard, 69 

Employers' Liability Act, 10; not 
applicable to the railroads or to 
the farms, 101 

Equity Cooperative Exchange, or« 
ganization, 54; its terminal ele- 
vator, 54; attitude of Minneapo- 
lis Chamber of Commerce to- 
wards, 40, 54; legislation affect- 
ing, 55 

Equity, Society of and the Non- 
partisan League, 9 



Farmers' cooperative elevators, be- 
come privately owned, 35, 54; 
difficulties in operation of, 35; 
treatment by chambers of com- 
merce, 54 

Farmers' Terminal Packing Com- 
pany of St. Paul, 257 

Federal Farm Loan Act, dissatis- 
faction of the farmer with, 50 

Federal Farm Loan Board, report 
of on agricultural loans, 51 

Federal Reserve Banks, loans to 
North Dakota, 52; use of, 264 

Force, the gospel of, 6, 131, 143 

Frazier, Governor Lynn J., a candi- 
date for president of the United 
States, 6; story of, 70; and the 
Board of Regents case, 114; the 
gospel of force, 143 ; the pardon 
of Kate O'Hare, 156; the con- 
scription of wealth, 156; re- 
elected in 1920, 222 

Free love, the traveling library and 
the books of Ellen Key, 112 



INDEX 



279 



Fruit Growers' associations, 250, 
258, 263 

G 

4 Geddes, Sir Auckland, 276 
German-American boy, the loyalty 

of, 155 
Germans, pro, and the League, 153, 

2 36 ... 

Gilbert, Joseph, criminal conviction 

of, 160 

Good Government League, 200 

Grace, Judge Richard, statement of 
the grievances and demands of 
the North Dakota farmer, 42; 
misquotation of Senator, E. F. 
Ladd, 44; the Youmans' Bank 
case, 193, 197 

Grain grades, the complaints of the 
farmer, 36, 40; the millers' de- 
fense, 38, 48 

Grain inspection, complain ts 
against, 37; reports of inspectors, 
39; address of Senator McCum- 
ber on, 45; the Non-partisan acts, 
90, 98, 99 

Gronna, Senator Ansel, nomination 
to Congress, 30; letter claiming 
that Townley was responsible for 
the defeat of the Gore bill, 210; 
defeated by E. F. Ladd, Non- 
partisan candidate for United 
States Senator, 222, 240 



Hansborough, Senator, the McKen- 
zie-McCumber-Hansborough au- 
tocracy, 29; the looting of Alaska 
and "The Spoilers," 30 

Harding, President W. H., on the 
cooperative movement, 250; on 
tenant farming, 253 ; on the 
tariff, 254 

Home-building Association, crea- 
tion and powers, 91 ; compelled 
to suspend operations, 226, 236 

Houston, D. F., the use of the fed- 
eral reserve banks, 248 



Iconoclast, 69 

Independent Workers of the World 
and the farmer, 12; alliance with 
the non-partisans, 141 ; defeat of 
anti-L W. W. legislation, 141 

Independent Voters' League, the 
fall elections of 1920, 220, 222, 
240 

Industrial Commission, creation 
and powers, 90 

Initiative, amendments to the con- 
stitution by, 104 

Insurance, industrial, act not appli- 
cable to the farms, a means to 
create a fund for political pur- 
poses, 101 ; hail, 90 

Interest rates, 32, 50 



H 



Hail insurance, 90 

Hagan, Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture M., on the price of wheat 
and the high cost of patriotism, 

157 

Hall, Thomas, as a member of the 
Board of University and School 
Lands, removed from several 
boards, 154; revolt of, 200; be- 
comes an opposition candidate 
for secretary of state, 211; 
elected in 1920, 222 

Halldorson, Deputy Bank Examiner 
P. E., report on insolvency of 
Scandinavian American Bank of 
Fargo, 185 

Hanna, Governor Louis B., election 
of, 57 ; and the Youmans' Bank 
case, 190 



Johnson, Senator M. N., opposed 
to Professor Thayer's draft of a 
North Dakota constitution, 22 

Johnson, M. P., rebellion of, 199 

Judges, attacks upon, 165; as rep- 
resentatives rather than judicial 
officers, 171, 180, 185; the politi- 
cal control of, 270 

Judicial despotism, 228 



Kane, Dr. Thomas F., attempt to 
remove from presidency of state 
university, 116 
Kansas coal strike of 1919, 132 
Kelly, Congressman J. E., 200 
Key, Ellen, books of, in the travel- 
ing library, 112 



28o 



INDEX 



Kneeshaw, Judge, charge to the 
jury in the Youmans' Bank case, 
192 

Kositzky, State Auditor Carl, re- 
moved from several boards, 164; 
revolt, 200; becomes an opposi- 
tion candidate for state auditor, 
211; defeated at the primaries, 
220 

L 

Labor laws, lack of any real neces- 
sity for, 101 ; failure to protect 
the farm laborer, 3 ; attitude of 
League toward, 12, 151 

Ladd, Senator E. F., election to the 
United States Senate, 30; state- 
ments as to the milling value of 
wheat, 38; nominated against 
Senator Gronna, 212 ; elected in 
1920, 222 

Langer, William, as a member of 
the Board of University and 
School Lands, 95; removed from 
several boards, 164;* action 
against the Scandinavian Ameri- 
can Bank by, 186; revolt of, 200; I 
becomes an opposition candidate 
for governor, 200, 211; platform, 
213; vote at the primary, 220 

La Follette, Senator Robert M., in- 
fluence in North Dakota, 29; 
Loftus and the La Follette roll 
call, 58 ; a friend of Loftus and 
of the Equity terminal elevator, 

6 3 
La Moure, Judson, as a political 

boss, 26 

Land, nationalization of, 2, 3, 14 

Law, government by, 229, 264 

Lever Act, 254 

Le Sueur, Arthur, story of, and ser- 
vices to League, 66 ; attorney of 
the Independent Workers of the 
World, 66 ; attorney of Townley, 
66 ; a League dictator, 106 ; states 
that the North Dakota program is 
socialistic, 142; address before 
the New York Civic Club on the 
defeat of the anti-L W. W. 
laws, 142; attempt to contract 
with I. W. W. for North Dako- 
ta's labor supply, 143 

Libraries, free traveling, Non-par- 
tisan control of, in, 112; the 



teachings of socialism and of free 
love, 112 
Loftus, George H., fight for termi- 
nal elevator, 58, 63 ; the La Fol- 
lette roll call, 58 ; as an orator, 
62; tribute of William Langer to, 

63 

Loftus, O. E., League's bank ex- 
aminer, 69 ; candidate for state 
treasurer on socialist ticket, 69 

Lemke, William, story of, 66 ; ser- 
vices to the League, 6j, 69 ; the 
Youmans' Bank case, 196 

Lindbergh, C. A,, 9, 160; vote for, 
214 

Linde, Henry, and the Youmans' 
Bank case, 194 

Lyman, Charles A., address on the 
cooperative movement, 249 

M 

Mallon, George, vote for, 214 

Marx, Carl, 3, 13 

MacDonald, State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction N. C, 
teachers, examination questions 
of, 108 ; defeated by Miss Minnie 
E. Nielson, 117; extension de- 
partment of the state university, 
117 

McCumber, Senator Porter J., 
speech on the grievances of the 
North Dakota farmer, 45 

McKenzie, Alexander, as a politi- 
cal boss, 26-32, 240 

Mail order houses, used as a club, 
168 

Middleman, the attitude of the 
Non-partisan League towards, 2, 
4, 9, 10; and the Society of 
Equity, 9, 12; complaints against, 
34, 149 ; attitude of cooperative 
movement towards, 242, 264 

Mills, state owned, 48, 49; contri- 
bution of Minneapolis mills to 
the grain industry of the North- 
west, 48, 49 

Mills, Walter Thomas, and the 
Non-partisan program, 7; story 
of, 64; justification of the 
League's autocracy, 84; as a dic- 
tator, 106 

Minneapolis Chamber of Com- 
merce, nature and composition 
of, 37 



INDEX 



281 



Minnesota, primary elections of 

1920, 214; general elections of 

1920, 216 
Monopoly, desire of socialists but 

not yet contemplated, 17 
Montana, primaries of 1920, 214; 

fall elections of 1920, 219 
Moore, Beecher, 69 

N 

National Non-partisan League, 
North Dakota home state of, 2, 6; 
Frazier as candidate for Presi- 
dent of the United States, 6; au- 
tocracy in, 80; articles of asso- 
ciation, 80; justification of autoc- 
racy, by Walter Thomas Mills, 
84 

Nelson, Theodore, organizes Inde- 
pendent Voters' League, 199 

New Rockford, Capital removal 
case, 171 

New Times, editorial on the so- 
cialist program, 16 

New York Call, The, endorsement 
of Non-partisan League, 7 

New Zealand, example for North 
Dakota, 33 ; labor strikes of 
1913, 64 

Nielson, State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction Miss Minnie, 
attacks upon, no, 164; reasons 
for attacks, n; reelected in 
1920, 222 

Non-partisan Leader, The, Charles 
Edward Russell, editor of, 60; 
David C. Coates, editor of, and 
the election of the League's Su- 
preme Court judges, 68 

Non-partisan League, analysis of, 
1 ; tenant farming, 1 ; the social- 
ists, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 ; protest against 
marketing conditions, 2 ; as a na- 
tional party, 2, 5, 6, 8, n; the 
middleman, 2, 9 ; private owner- 
ship in land, 2, 13 ; and the labor- 
ing-man, 3 ; the Committee of 
Forty-eight, 3; the farmer, 4; 
the eight-hour day, 11, 146; the 
general unrest, 5 ; the Industrial 
Workers of the World, 5 ; its 
program, 4, 89 ; the gospel of 
force, 6 ; membership, 8 ; disloy- 
alty of its leaders, 10, 106, 153- 



158; the World War, 153; in 
Minnesota, 9; in Wisconsin, 9; 
in Montana, 9; and the Republi- 
can party, 9 ; and the Democratic 
party, 9 ; jealousy of the Society 
of Equity towards, 9; jealousy of 
some Socialist leaders towards, 
9 ; birth of, 59 ; no need for as a 
new political party, 53 ; socialist 
leaders, 60, 69; compensations of 
and instructions to its organizers, 
73; funds at the disposal of, 72; 
pledges required of candidates, 
65; its paid membership, 72, 73; 
the use of the automobile and the 
aeroplane, 75 ; its autocratic 
methods, 76, 80, 86 ; its social 
viewpoint, 106; free love, 112; 
endorsement of by Working 
People's Non-partisan Political 
League of Minnesota, 15; 
charges of disloyalty against, 
153; disloyalty no bar to holding 
office in, 163. 

North Dakota, home center of a 
new political party, 2; area, 20; 
resources, 20; population, 20, 24; 
not illiterate, 17; per capita 
wealth, 19; not a state of tenant 
farmers, 21 ; production, 21 ; as 
a commercial province, of St. 
Paul and Minneapolis, 22; first 
constitutional convention, 22 ; the 
throne-room at St. Paul, 26 ; 
cannot be commercially self-sus- 
taining, 52 ; not bankrupt, 230 

Nuessle, Judge William L., opinion 
upon the seizure of the North 
Dakota coal mines, 135; reelec- 
tion of, 140 

Northwest Ordinance, the educa- 
tional clause of and the League's 
proposed constitution, 105, 150 



O'Connor, J. L. F. T., candidacy of 
for Governor in 1920, 220, 221, 
222 

O'Hare, Kate, Governor Frazier 
signs petition for pardon of, 156 



Packard, F. E., estimate of state 
deficit, 207 



282 



INDEX 



Patriotism, socialism and, 106, 154 
Pledge, required of League's can- 
didates, 65 
Plumb bill, endorsed by League, 

152, 222 
Potato Exchange, Minnesota, 247 
Poverty, not cause of revolution, 19 
Precedents, Judge Robinson on 

value of, 228 
Preus, Governor J. A. O., primary 
vote for, 214; elected in 1920, 
216; address on the cooperative 
movement, 256 
Price control, President Harding 

on, 252 
Prices, the fall of and the attempts 
at a compromise, 225 ; and the 
banks, 226 
Primary elections, system adopted, 
31; social effect of, 32; the 
death knell of, 86 
Profiteers, A. C. Townley and, 159 
Prohibition, Justice Robinson's let- 
ter concerning, 181 
Public Education, League's attempt 
N to control, 107 ; attempts at 
control by old-line politicians, 
107 ; attempted control of school 
funds, 108 ; attempted control of 
social and economic instruction 
in public schools, 108 ; teachers' 
examination questions, 108 ; dan- 
ger to national school land-grant 
fund, 118; school land-grant 
fund a trust fund, 123; duty of 
the Attorney General of the 
United States in relation thereto, 
128; Board of Regents case, 114, 
166; attempt to remove president 
of state university, 167 
Public printing act, adoption, 91 ; 
nature of, 101 ; the freedom of 
the press, 101 



R 



Railroad employees and the 
League, 152, 222 

Red-flag law, the anti, 87, 141 

Regents, the Board of Regents case 
and the power of arbitrary re- 
moval, 114, 166 

Rempfer, W. C, letter of on the 
non-partisans and socialism, 3 ; 
on socialism and opportunism, 14 



Revolutions, of 1892, 28; of 1906, 
28 ; of 1919, 200 

Robinson, James E., League's jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court, 67; 
tax title lawyer, 68; candidate 
for Congress, 68; justification of 
League's autocracy, 78 ; preelec- 
tion promises, 170; dissenting 
opinion of Chief Justice Bruce 
in relation thereto, 171 ; opinion 
on the Teachers' Pension law, 
175 ; letters to the press, 177, 181 ; 
methods pursued by, 180, 181; 
the Youmans' Bank case, 195; 
effect of decisions and writings 
of, 227 

Rural-Credit associations, com- 
plaint of lack of, 49 

Russell, Charles Edward, services 
to the League, 60; editor of Non- 
partisan Leader, 60, 106 ; story 
of, 64 



Scandinavians, the Scandinavian 
Voters' League, 29 ; as Republi- 
cans, 31; in the revolution of 
1906, 31 

Scandinavian American Bank, fi- 
nancial agency of the League, 
185; deputy bank examiner de- 
clares it to be insolvent, 185; a 
receiver appointed by the bank- 
ing board, 187, 236; the re- 
ceiver dismissed by the Supreme 
Court on ex parte affidavits, 188 

Scandinavian Voters' League, part 
taken in the revolution of 1906, 
29, 32 

Shipstead, Henrik, candidate for 
governor of Minnesota, 9 ; de- 
feated at the primaries, 11; en- 
dorsed by the Working People's 
Non-partisan League at the No- 
vember, 1920, election; defeated, 
214 

Shortridge, Governor C. B., elec- 
tion, and the terminal elevator at 
Duluth, 28 

Socialism, and the Non-partisan 
League, 3, 7, 9, 10, n, 13, 14; 
the League as a rival to the So- 
cialist Party, 7, 218; the term 
defined, 13; socialism and the 



INDEX 



283 



farmer, n, 13; the modern so- 
cialist an opportunist, 14, 15; a 
farmers' monopoly the hope of 
the socialists, 16; and patriotism, 
106, 154; the position of the so- 
cialists in the campaign of 1920, 
218 

Socialist party of Minnesota, 15, 16 

Sorley, John, part taken in the 
revolution of 1906, 29 

South Dakota, the fall elections of 
1920, 219 

Spalding, Burleigh F., and the 
revolution of 1906, 28 

State sheriff, nature of the act cre- 
ating, 92 ; a medieval survival, 
102; the reasons for and objec- 
tions to, 102, 103 ; its repeal on a 
referendum, 103 

Steen, John, elected state treasurer 
on the anti-Non-partisan ticket in 
1920, 212 

Supreme Court of North Dakota, its 
League members, 67 ; Board of 
Regents case, 117; effect of deci- 
sions of, 227. See also "Judges" 
and "Courts." 

Supreme Court of the United States, 
and state-ownership, 266 

Surrat, A. J., report on North Da- 
kota's agricultural products, 21 



69; desire for socialist instruc- 
tion in schools, 108 ; and the 
traveling library, 111; attempt 
to remove the president of the 
state university, 116 

Townley, A. C, connection with the 
socialists, 2, 10; story of, 60; as 
a founder of the League, 61 ; as 
an orator, 62 ; services to the 
League, 69; justification of autoc- 
racy, 76, 79 ; chairman of execu- 
tive committee of National Non- 
partisan League, 81; and the 

/ World War, 157, 159; convicted 
of violating Minnesota Espion- 
age Act, 161 ; threats against 
business men, 168 



U 



United Grain Growers' Associa- 
tion, 249 

University and school lands, board 
of, powers, 94 



Villard, Henry, the first North Da- 
kota constitutional convention, 22 



Tariff, the, 254 

Taxation, excessive, 206, 208 

Tax commission, reduced to one 
member, 93 

Teachers, examination questions of, 
108 ; Justice Robinson and the 
teachers' pension law, 175; sala- 
ries in arrears, 224 

Tenant farming, not cause of the 
rise of the League, 1 ; President 
Harding on, 253 

Terrorism, political and legislative, 
164, 171; social and business, 
168 

Thomason, O. M., remarks on Non- 
partisan program at Chicago 
convention of Committee of 
Forty-eight, 3 

Thompson, O. M., 69 

Totten, Reverend George, presi- 
dent of Board of Administration, 



W 

Wheat, cost of production of, esti- 
mate of Professor Call, 156; esti- 
mate of Commissioner Hagan, 
157; Townley and the price of, 
210 

Williams, J. Arthur, deserts the 
Socialist party for the League, 7 

Wisconsin, the fall elections of 
1920, 219 

Women voters, 216 

Wood, Fred B., a founder of the 
League, 61 ; story of, 62 

Working People's Non-partisan Po- 
litical League of Minnesota, dec- 
laration of principles, 146; en- 
dorsement of the Farmers' Non- 
partisan League of North Dakota, 
151; endorses Shipstead, 218 

World War, attitude of leaders of 
League towards, 10, 153; Gov- 



284 INDEX 

ernor Frazier and, 155, 161; M. Y 

Hagan and, 157; Charles A. 

Lindbergh and, 160; Townley Youmans' Bank case, 190 

and, 157, 159, 161; Joseph Gil- Young, Congressman George M., 

bert and, 160; J. O. Bentall and, advocate of Equity terminal ele- 

161; League's declarations con- vator and supporter of Loftus, 

cerning, 162. 63; reelected in 1920, 222 



